


The Waves of Time

by tomaka



Series: Forgotten Legends [2]
Category: Gears of War (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 67,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23208691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomaka/pseuds/tomaka
Summary: They say time heals all things, but time can also distract, entomb, and shroud.Something deep beneath the Vasgar capital has awoken and it's calling out, eager to be found.  The source is a mystery, but Delta is determined to find it before the Swarm and its Queen do.Set after Gears 5.
Relationships: Kait Diaz/James "JD" Fenix
Series: Forgotten Legends [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668619
Comments: 66
Kudos: 79





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies to all the Del fans out there, but in this story he's dead. This story continues after the ending of Gears 5, and JD was the one who survived the encounter with the Swarm Queen.
> 
> This story is going to be fairly light hearted in the beginning, potentially getting more serious as we go. I love the small interactions you hear between the characters as you play the game, the little things that don't make it into the main storylines. I'm trying to keep that feeling as I write, so here's hoping I can inject a little humour.
> 
> If you've read my previous Gears fic, Tears and Smoke, I consider these two stories linked. It's not required reading by any means, but it helps establish JD and Kait's relationship. I see them as being two people who care deeply about one another, but they haven't yet crossed that step into a romantic relationship. That might (read: will probably) change as I write. 
> 
> In a perfect world I'll have this updated once a week with a new chapter. Please try to keep me to it!

“Alright kids, gather round.” It was becoming Baird’s standard greeting. 

JD lowered himself onto a box of parts—one of many in Baird’s perpetually messy lab—and eased back on his palms. Kait found a seat on another box, while Fahz chose to remain standing, leaning against a computer console behind them. Marcus had claimed a short crate, and Cole and Sam were chatting away on the other side of the room.

“So what’s the deal, Baird?” Kait asked. The meeting had been unplanned but not unexpected. 

It was common knowledge within the COG that Baird was actively searching Sera for Swarm activity, trying to find the site of their central hive. Since the assault on New Ephyra a few months ago, hunting down the hive had been one of the COG’s top priorities.

Baird turned to the lab’s central console. “Iris, if you would?” 

“Of course, Damon.” The elegant AI said, and the holoprojector glowed to life.

JD wondered what his Aunt Sam thought of Iris, knowing her _special gentleman friend_ was spending so much time with a near-sentient AI who sounded—in JD’s personal opinion—like a very beautiful woman. A very beautiful woman who catered to Baird’s every whim, charmed him, and who put up with his acerbic attitude with patience and even a bit of joy. Sam didn’t seem like the jealous type, but JD also knew she was the type to resolve conflict with a hard punch or a knife stab. He awaited the day when Baird’s beloved AI was unceremoniously unplugged by his peeved lover. JD would watch that showdown with great amusement.

A spinning globe appeared on the holoprojector, a sparkling view of Sera. It spun slowly, New Ephyra and the handful of settlements shining pinpricks on its surface.

“Eight days ago seismic sensors began picking up unusual activity near the old Vasgar capital.” Baird made a spinning motion with his hand and the image of Sera zoomed in to focus on Vasgar. Its capital city, long since destroyed, was highlighted in red.

“What kind of unusual activity?” Kait asked, leaning forward in her seat.

“The kind that shows up on seismic sensors, but is decidedly not seismic in origin.” Baird said. 

“So what, not an earthquake then?” Fahz crossed his arms, staring up at the display with yellow tinted glasses. 

“The dullard gets it in one.” Baird said with his usual dry snark.

“I know what that means, you know.” Fahz actually looked a little offended, and JD chuckled quietly.

“Whatever we recorded wasn’t an earthquake or a volcano.” The old Gear turned back to the projection. A flurry of sensor readings appeared on the screen, showing graphs of tremors. “Didn’t even match the readouts for geothermal activity.” The image shifted to show a cross section of Sera’s crust, magma core thrumming beneath several kilometres of dirt and stone. “Upon closer inspection, none of the readings were even remotely deep enough to be the usual suspects.”

“So you’re thinking they’re Swarm?” JD gestured to the glowing dot in the crust diagram.

“That,” Baird started, twisting his lips and glowering up at the projection. “We don’t know.”

“What do you mean? Is it Swarm or not?” It was Marcus’s turn to ask, leaning forward and pressing his palms into his knees. The old soldier’s permanent frown drew even further downwards into a hard scowl.

“Whenever the Locust or the Swarm have made themselves known, they’ve generated distinctive seismic readings. Within a certain margin, we can recognize marching grubs, Corpsers, drilling equipment—“

“Giant worms!”

“Giant worms, thank you Cole. We learned what they usually sound like. But this,” an audio graph was highlighted on the screen, the line bouncing up and down as it recorded the activity in the crust. It almost looked like a heartbeat, JD noted. “This is something new, and I don’t know if it’s Swarm or not.”

“It looks like it’s…repeating. Is that right?” Kait asked, watching the heartbeat signal.

“The signal repeats for one hour, then it changes its frequency and continues for another hour. This cycle completes after twenty-six hours before it starts at the beginning again.” Iris explained mellowly.

“The set repetitiveness of it, as well as the fact that it adheres to the twenty-six hour clock, is what’s making me question whether it’s Swarm or not.” Baird placed his hands on his hips and turned to address Delta. “Swarm, so far as we’ve been able to tell, don’t follow our lovely form of time measurement. And this signal, whatever it is, is so regular that it has to be machine made. Nothing organic would ever be that consistently precise.”

“How do we find out?” Kait asked

“That’s where Delta comes in. I was able to get some drones in the area to do a few detailed scans to try and figure out where precisely this activity is coming from. Sensors show that beneath the city are a series of tunnels, like the old Locust burrows.” The map of the Vasgari capital returned and moved to show another crust cross section. A spider web of tunnels appeared as an overlay, highlighted in bright green. “Aside from the repeating signal, there’s no other activity detected.”

“No Swarm then?” Fahz asked.

“Iris and I don’t think so, no.”

“So what do you want us to do?” JD suspected he already knew the answer.

“Iris, show them what we’ve prepared.” The projector flashed and a series of blueprints and diagrams illuminated the room.

“Ugh.” Marcus grunted. “Not those goddamned things.”

JD stared up at the display and tried to puzzle out what he was seeing. They were hollow cylinders, capable of holding two, maybe three people, and had a strange engine on the bottom of them with a series of bizarre gears. The interior was lined with harness straps, similar to the cabin of a King Raven, save for the fact that there were no seats.

“Grindlifts. A COG speciality when we infiltrated the Locust Hollow. I had Iris dig up the blueprints and we constructed a few, just for you. With a few adjustments, of course.” Baird looked quite pleased with himself.

“Wait a tic. Are you saying you want us to go down there?” Fahz almost looked stricken at the idea.

“That’s precisely what I’m saying. Congrats on keeping up.” 

“Are you for fucking real?!” Everyone turned to look at Fahz, at the flabbergasted look on his face. “You want us to drill down there and what, walk around to find this thing?”

“You sound like you have a problem with that idea.” JD tried to keep the amusement out of his voice.

“You don’t?”

“Not really, no.” He gave Fahz a casual shrug. “So far it sounds easy. And if Baird’s right and there’s no Swarm down there, it’ll be a real cakewalk.”

“You’re seriously okay walking around in some random tunnels that might collapse on you? We don’t know how stable they are or whether they’ll hold after we drill into ‘em.” Fahz was beginning to gesture irritably at the display, shifting on his feet. JD thought the tough soldier almost looked…nervous.

Kait picked up on it too. “Fahz,” she said slowly, raising a questioning eyebrow. “Are you claustrophobic?” 

“Am I claustrophobic?!” An incredulous tone had appeared in his voice. “Are you asking if I have an irrational fear of small spaces and getting crushed to death?” Fahz suddenly seemed to notice the room was focused on him, and he hesitated. “Because I don’t. I have a rational fear of small spaces and getting crushed to death.”

JD shot him a surprised look. “Really?” It was not the bravado-filled defensive answer he was expecting.

Fahz fidgeted under all the attention. “Yeah, alright. So what then? I don’t like being in a place where the ceiling can fall and kill me without any warning. Seems perfectly rational to me.”

“Can we all focus back on me now?” Baird waved his hand to catch their attention. “As I was saying, Delta hops into these Grindlifts, drills down under the old city, and we see what’s making all this noise.”

“What do you think we’ll find down there?” Marcus rested an elbow heavily on his knee and glared up at the Grindlift schematics.

“It’ll likely be something big if it’s making this much racket. And if we’re picking up on it, then the Swarm likely are too.” 

“Unless it’s Swarm tech.” Kait pointed out.

Baird mulled over the idea for a moment. “I doubt it. They’re good at making guns and things that blow up, but something about this seems too…precise for them.”

“So if it’s not Swarm, then it’s human. Why do we need to investigate it? Do you think it offers any sort of tactical advantage?” JD asked.

“We need to investigate it because I need to know what it is.” Baird said, sighing and crossing his arms over his white lab coat.

“You _need_ to know?” Kait pressed.

“Damon has desire for knowledge that borders on obsessive.” Iris chimed in.

“That’s enough, Iris.” Baird snarled, fixing an annoyed stare at the centre console.

“Bot lady’s got a point. You’re _intolerable_ when you don’t know something.” Sam’s voice was full of mirth as she sidled up beside her not-husband, giving him a playful nudge with her hip.

“Yeah, yeah.” The old bald Gear waved a dismissive hand, as if he was trying to swat the comments away. “I want to know what it is, and if it has any value—tactical or otherwise—we need to get a hold of it before the Swarm does.”

“Alright, then. When do we leave?” JD pushed to his feet, and the others followed suit.

“You’ll head out first thing in the morning. I’ve reached out to Paduk, and he’s agreed to meet you when you reach Vasgar. He and his nomads will support you however they can.” With a wave of Baird’s hand, the holoprojector shut down and the room returned to its normal florescent lighting.

“I’m sure Paduk’s going to be delighted to see us again.” Kait gave a humoured roll of her eyes. 

“Nah, he likes you, remember. It’s the rest of us he’s going to get upset about.” A smile spread across JD’s face, and he turned to look at Fahz. 

Fahz was fuming quietly, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes focused on the ground.

“Uh oh. I think we broke Fahz.” JD mused. “You alright?” He asked with a laugh, giving the Gear a playful swat on the arm. Fahz grunted and glared at him.

“S’a stupid fucking idea, all this.” He grumbled.

“You know you can sit this one out, right? If going underground bothers you that much.” Kait was much more comforting than JD ever would have been. He was a firm believer that Fahz deserved bit of ribbing he got, with all the snark and bullshit he dragged the rest of them through on a daily basis.

Fahz grunted again, still not looking at them. Then he gave a big huff and dropped his arms from his chest. “Like you lot would ever let me hear the end of it. Let’s just get this over with, yeah?”

JD laughed lightly and clapped the other man on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit. Come on, I’ll buy you a drink to settle your nerves.” He turned and walked up the steps to exit Baird’s lab, giving his dad and Baird a quick wave. Sam shot him one of her customary grins with an added wink. Fahz and Kait trotted along behind. 

“Hey, you can’t just buy Fahz a drink and not get me one too.” 

“Aw come on, look at the poor guy. He’s clearly terrified.” JD jerked his thumb back at the glowering Gear behind him. 

“Is this what it’s going to be like on this whole trip? Everyone makin’ a mockery of me?” 

“‘Fraid so.”

“Look on the bright side, Fahz. If we’re underground we don’t have to worry about all those desert windflares.” Kait offered with a smirk. Fahz rolled his eyes and gave an exhausted sigh.

“There you go! Silver lining.” JD said with a laugh, turning them down the hall towards the base’s recreational area. “Come on, first round’s on me.”

“Damn well better be.” Fahz muttered, glumly following along.


	2. Chapter 2

“So this is what those med techs have been fussing over this whole time?” Fahz jerked his head at JD’s right arm. “Looks…flimsy.” 

Kait tilted her head to one side as she examined his arm. “How’s it feel?”

JD lifted the arm and flexed his fingers into a fist. “Feels fine. Little itchy, but they said that’s just the new nerve endings growing in.”

The medical sleeve, which had served as his substitute epidermis for the last several months, was gone. The raw muscles of his arm were covered in a new layer of pale, blemish-free skin. It was smooth and just slightly more transparent than normal skin, clearly showing the blue lines of his veins. 

JD didn’t understand all the science behind his treatment, but the young doctor had been excited about the procedure when he had explained it to him. _Very experimental_ the doctor had said, practically vibrating with enthusiasm.

It was similar tech to what Baird used in his lab to print three dimensional parts and tools, only it had been adapted to use living tissue. Lab-grown cells—grown from samples collected from JD a week prior to the procedure—were fed into a bio-printer and printed out in precise careful lines down the exposed musculature of his arm. 

The process had taken several days and several sessions to complete, but the result was fresh baby-soft skin covering his whole arm. The lines showing the printer’s path were still visible, but they were fading as the skin expanded and grew atop its new home. 

The new skin was so smooth there weren’t even any creases along his knuckles, and the hand was void of fingerprints. There were small ovals near the end of each finger where fingernails were beginning to grow in. In a few months, the doctor had promised, the skin would toughen and tan and there would be no obvious signs the limb had been injured in the first place.

JD had been skeptical in the beginning, but he couldn’t argue with the results. He had been convinced the medical membrane was going to be a permanent fixture in his life, or that he would have knotted scar tissue running up his arm like Paduk. It seemed like a better result than he deserved.

“It’s amazing.” Kait marvelled, grasping his wrist and turning his arm over to examine the underside of his forearm. JD relaxed his arm and let her manipulate it.

“Apparently I was their first human trial. I didn’t think it would actually work.” 

“Is that what you’ve been up to these last few weeks? Playing lab rat?” Fahz snorted.

“Not really up to me.” JD shrugged. “They told me I was the perfect candidate to try it out, and after the spiel they gave me, it was impossible to say no.”

Phrases like _This could help advance the field of emergency medicine by decades_ and _Think of all the good that could come from this_ and _There’s nothing to be lost by trying_ had been thrown at him by all sorts of doctors and medical techs. The real deciding factor for JD had been the promise of the technology helping other people. He didn’t care so much if he was left scarred from the Hammer blast, but if being a test subject meant helping others down the line then he couldn’t say no.

The only real cost to him had been his time and his deployment with Delta. If the treatment had failed, then the printed skin would have been removed and his medical membrane would have been reattached. Nothing about it was threatening, and all it took was him staying on base for a few weeks.

To give the skin time to bond to his tissue and properly adjust, JD had been on strict light duties. Anything too strenuous risked tearing the new delicate epidermis, effectively undoing all the work his excited doctor had done. It meant he couldn’t join Delta on patrols or missions for a few weeks, and he’d barely seen the others in that time. Their mission to Vasgar was to be his first normal work in what felt like ages.

“Since it worked on me, the doctor’s hopeful they’ll be able to use it on more people. They might even be able to use it to print and repair muscle and organ tissue.” He explained as Kait finally finished her examination of his arm. “If it works, it could mean healing up in days rather than weeks.”

“That would be incredible.” Kait said with raised eyebrows.

“It could make a big difference in war time, that’s for sure.” JD agreed.

“So how much paperwork did they saddle you with while you’ve been on this vacation of yours?” Fahz asked cheekily.

“You wouldn’t _believe_ how much.” JD groaned, slumping back in his chair. “Did you know I had to inventory the base’s ammo supply? Do you have any idea how many bullets that is?” 

“A metric shit ton?” Fahz offered with a smirk.

“A metric _fuck_ ton.” JD corrected, grumbling. “You have no idea how excited I am to not have to count something.”

“Speaking of counting things,” Kait said. “I count zero drinks on this table where there should be at least three. You promised drinks.”

“The free alcohol was just a clever ruse to get you to hang out with me.” An impudent smile spread across JD face.

“A ruse? Better not be.” Kait scoffed.

“But I’ve been so lonely.”

“Nice try. Booze. Now.” She slapped her hand on the table demandingly.

“Alright, alright!” JD raised his hands in surrender and laughed. He pushed up from their small table and walked to the bar.

As promised, JD returned with the first round; beers for three. With the COG thrust back into war, inventory of non-essential goods like alcohol would disappear soon as supply efforts were focused elsewhere. With that in mind, the three enjoyed their pints while they lasted.

They spent the time chatting and catching up after their few weeks apart, Kait and Fahz filling JD in on the patrols and evacuations Delta had been assigned to. JD felt fortunate that he hadn’t missed anything terribly exciting while on inventory duty.

Fahz, despite being the brunt of every joke JD could think of, ponied up for the second round. JD and Kait each choked back their shots with a wince and a cough, while Fahz downed his with a laughing shout, thumping himself in the chest when he finished.

It was Kait’s selection of drink that was the worst.

“What is it?” JD asked, his face twisted up in distaste as he stared at the milky white drink in his glass. It was sour and sharp in his nose, and he hadn’t dared try it yet. Fahz appeared equally distrusting of the liquid in his glass, swirling it to watch it shimmer in the light.

“Kumis. It’s an old Outsider drink.” There was a twinkle in Kait’s eye as she spoke.

“Yeah, okay. But what is it?” He asked again.

“Telling you would ruin the fun.” Kait sipped at her own white liquid casually, her face giving JD no indication if the drink was actually good or not.

“Is this something I’m gonna puke up later?” Fahz pulled the drink up and sniffed it, and JD cringed as he saw the other man’s face crinkle up.

“It’s not that bad.” She insisted, taking another drink to prove her point.

“Somehow,” JD sighed and lifted the glass. “I doubt that.”

Before he lost his nerve, JD tilted the cup and took a big mouthful of the drink. The foul flavour hit him immediately and he fought the urge to spit it back into the glass. He sealed his mouth shut and forced himself to swallow, pounding his fist on the table as he did.

“Kait! The _fuck_?!” He said when the liquid had slipped down his throat. Kait nearly spit out her own mouthful and snorted in laughter. She quickly swallowed then threw her head back and laughed. “Ugh…oh man. That shit’s awful.”

Fahz looked horrified at JD’s reaction and stared warily into his cup.

“Why does it—“ JD tried to force back a gag and was only half successful. “Why does it taste like…like… _fuck_!” Kait cackled, her face bright and red with laughter. “Gross.” He muttered, using the bottom of his shirt to wipe at his face and get rid of any residue that stuck to his beard. The scent of the liquid was still in his nose, tingling unpleasantly. “You’re up, Fahz.”

“And you made it look _so_ appealing.” The Vasgari mumbled. 

Just when JD thought he was going to chicken out, Fahz snapped his head back and chugged the drink. Milky white rivulets slipped from the edges of his mouth and dripped onto his shirt as he mechanically downed the liquid.

“Oh damn.” Kait’s eyebrows shot up and she glanced at JD, looking impressed. “He put you to shame, Fenix.”

Fahz gasped as he dropped the empty glass back to the table, panting and wiping his mouth with the back of his arm. Then he paused and JD watched him grimace and finally acknowledge the taste.

“What did I just drink?” The words came slow and suspicious from Fahz’s mouth, making Kait laugh again.

“Kumis. It’s fermented horse milk.” She grinned.

JD sputtered. “Is that…is that why it tasted like…like…” 

“Yogurt, mate?” Fahz offered, looking far less disturbed than JD. “Sour alcoholic yogurt?"

“Oh god…I think I’m gonna be sick.” 

“JD, I think you’re actually turning green.” Kait teased. JD gave a sickly cough and raised his hand to catch the bartender’s attention and place another order.

“Milk’s not half as bad as what I thought.” Fahz said, looking thoughtfully down into his empty glass.

“Do I want to know what you thought it was?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“My dad used to tell me of this nasty drink from his days in Vasgar. Distilled with a raw chicken in it.” It was Kait’s turn to look horrified. “Supposedly it gave it quite a _unique_ full bodied flavour.” Fahz smirked at her expression.

“I’d still take chicken liquor,” JD croaked. “Over this nasty Chuzz juice.”

“Speaking of which, you have to finish that.” Kait gestured at his glass, which was still near full.

JD gave it a forlorn look. “Do I have to?” 

“Hey, we both finished ours.” She turned her cup over and two drops splattered on the table. “And if we did it, then you have to too.” A hand plucked up his glass and pushed it squarely in front of him.

JD stared at it miserably, knowing he would receive no leniency from the two of them. “Shit.”

With a defeated sigh, he forced himself to ignore the acidic smell and the churning in his stomach as he raised the drink to his lips. The tart, unpleasant flavour hit his tongue and JD tried to mimic Fahz’s tactic of chugging it all back in one go. As much as he wanted to stop and spit it all back out—maybe go vomit into the bar’s single toilet—Kait’s laughter spurred him on. 

He held is breath and demanded his mouth and throat work, pushing the liquid down without pause. If he stopped he knew that would be the end of it and he wouldn’t be able to finish, and Kait and Fahz would torment him about it for weeks to come. 

After what seemed like forever, the liquid stopped flowing into his mouth and he made his last swallow. JD lowered the glass and bared his teeth as he let out his breath with a low groan. 

Kait gave him a hard pat on the back in congratulations and JD gripped the table as his stomach jostled. The kumis was trying to crawl its way back up his throat and he closed his eyes and willed his roiling stomach to calm. 

“Shall I clear the way to the toilet?” Fahz teased.

“Just…stop talking.” JD held up a hand, his eyes still closed. 

How was it he could wade waist deep through putrid Swarm pods and rotting corpses without so much as a sniff, but a little sour milk threatened to do him in?

There was set of footsteps and the sound of more glasses being added to the table, and JD knew his drink order had arrived. He forced himself to swallow and wiped his face with the hem of his shirt again before opening his eyes and staring blearily at Kait and Fahz’s smirking faces.

“Never again.” He managed through gritting teeth.

Three shots lay before them, a faintly yellow alcohol brimming in each. JD’s hand lunged forward and he jolted his head up and back, savouring the hot burn as the alcohol drained down his throat and to his stomach.

Before the others could reach for their shots, JD grabbed the two small glasses and drank them both in quick succession.

“You’re gonna regret that in the morning.” Kait mused.

“Don’t care. Just as long as I get that taste out of my mouth.”

“You big baby. It wasn’t that bad.” 

“It was and you know it.” JD burped and he covered his mouth with a fist, his eyes clenched shut again. “This better not give me…dysentery or something.”

“You’ll be fine.” Kait waved his concerns away with a smile. “But be sure to sit next to the bathroom on the flight tomorrow.”

“Please don’t make me think about that.” He uttered around his fist.

“S’it coming back up, Fenix? I thought it was soothing on the stomach really. It’d go nice with a bit of honey in it, maybe a biscuit or two.” The cheeky smile was evident in Fahz’s voice.

“Stop talking.” JD hissed, then more weakly, “Direct order.” He heard Fahz snicker.

Several sets of boots approached and JD heard the other two chatter away with the visitors. He ignored the conversation and tried to keep his breathing steady. With Kait and Fahz distracted he was able to focus on calming his stomach. Straightening his posture helped relieve the pressure, and he hiccuped once, twice and felt some relief. At some point he heard barks of laughter, and he realized belatedly they were laughing at him.

The voices faded away and he heard Kait say her goodbyes, then JD dared to crack his eyes open. 

“Feeling better yet?” She asked, less teasing and more gentle than before.

“Work in progress.” He said, then hiccuped again. “Who was that?” He nudged his chin towards the retreating group of soldiers.

“Oh, just a few Gears who are never going to respect you again.” She said with a sly smile.

“Fantastic.”

“Who’s up for some more?” Fahz asked cheerily, reaching over to give JD a hard slap on the shoulder. JD responded with a feeble groan and tried his best to swat Fahz’s hand away.

“I’m done. Never fly with a hangover.” Kait said sagely.

“Aw, but you’ve barely had anything!” Fahz protested, already flagging down the bartender for another round.

“And I’m going to keep it that way. I’m done.” She said again and pushed herself back from the table. “So is JD.” Kait tossed a thumb at the groaning soldier, whose recently repaired arm was wrapped around his middle.

“Oh he’s definitely done.” Fahz agreed with a grin. “I’m going to get myself a little sloshed, seeing as how we’re all gonna go dig our way into our tombs.” He gave JD another firm slap on the shoulder as he walked passed and toward the bar.

“I think I have a rough night ahead.” JD muttered as his stomach contents swirled, the alcohol mixing poorly with the fermented milk. He took a moment to get his feet under him before he stood, gripping the table shakily.

“If he dies during the night, I call dibs on his room.” Fahz called out, another two shots already gripped in each hand.

“Wouldn’t that be great. Killed by a bad batch of…of…yogurt.” JD made a face and threw a few bills on the bar and gave an unsteady wave to the bartender. 

“We’ll bury you with the Allfathers.” Kait chuckled. She slipped her arm through his and encouraged him to lean against her for support. “Come on, you’re looking at little pale. Let’s get you to bed.”

With Kait’s help they made their way into the hall, and JD wrapped an arm around her shoulders to grip her a little tighter. It was less an affectionate gesture and more of a desperate hold to prevent himself from toppling over.

“You actually like that stuff?” He asked, noting with a frown his speech was sounding a little funny.

“The kumis? Yeah, tastes like home.” Kait’s voice was soft and reminiscent. “Mom used to make it.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Despite the three shots he had downed, JD could still taste the kumis on the back of his tongue. “Just tastes like shit to me.” He said with an apologetic smile. Kait laughed lightly.

“Yeah, it wasn’t as good as the stuff Mom used to make.” She gave his arm a tug and they rounded a corner together. JD tried to look around and get his bearings, but both his head and stomach were spinning. “She used to say you get bad kumis from milking the male horses instead of the females.”

It took him a second to process the thought, but his stomach beat him to it. Bile rose to the back of his throat and JD locked a hand over his mouth with a startled, strangled groan. His vision darkened at the edges and his focus narrowed down to the few steps in front of him and Kait’s hold on his arm.

Kait was laughing again. “Sorry. I’ll shut up now.”

A few more weak steps and they were standing in front of a door. _His_ door. It took him three tries to enter his code, but eventually it slid aside and he stumbled from Kait’s hold to crash onto the bed. With some nauseating effort he managed to flop onto his back and laid sprawled and panting through his nose, his hand still holding his mouth shut.

Kait was watching him with a smile, her arms across her chest as her hip leaned on the wall near his feet.

“You know,” The chiding lecture was coming, JD could hear it in her voice. “If you hadn’t had those extra shots, I bet you’d be feeling a lot better right now.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.” He grumbled after his hand fell away. Then he waggled his feet back and forth on their heels. “Pull my boots off, will you?” As though it was an afterthought, JD added, “Please?"

Kait chuckled with a shake of her head and pushed off from the wall, then reached out and opened the latches around his calves and ankles. A few tugs later and the boots thudded to the ground, one falling over with a thump.

“Pass me that.” He waved a loose hand at a jar sitting out of reach on his bedside table. “That blue thing.” JD’s speech was starting to slur a little.

Kait picked the heavy jar up and unscrewed the cap. A thick medicinal smell wafted out and she crinkled her nose. 

“You have to put this stuff on your arm?” She asked, handing the open jar to him. JD let the container sit on his chest as he used his left hand to scoop out a dollop of pale pink goop.

“Every day, three times per day. Stinks, doesn’t it?” He slathered it on his forearm and the medicinal smell grew stronger in the room. His movements were clumsy, and it was a clear struggle to keep his arms up.

Kait sat on the edge of the bed and grasped the wrist of his left hand. She ran her palm over his fingers to swipe up the lotion, then she let his hand fall away. JD obeyed without a word when she reached for his other arm, letting her cradle the limb in one hand while the other worked the goop into his skin.

Her fingers felt warm but rough against the sensitive new skin, her calluses rubbing against the inside of his elbow and moving down to his palm. She paused for a moment to scoop out more lotion from the jar still propped on his chest, then her fingers began massaging over his knuckles and the lines of his tendons. She was gentle as she rubbed around his new fingernails and down between his fingers.

It was all very calming, and JD watched with blurring eyes as she worked. More than once he dozed off for a few seconds, then his stomach would churn and he would wake again to a wave of nausea. 

When she finished coating his arm with the medical lotion, she rested his hand on his abdomen and sealed up the jar. She set it aside and looked back down at him, her hand on his thigh. 

“How’s your stomach now?” Her voice was much quieter than before, and he blinked up at her.

“Not great.” He said, suspecting he looked a little pathetic. A cold sweat had started, and he could feel his shirt become sticky and uncomfortable. The room felt simultaneously too cold and too hot, and JD knew the next few hours would not be kind to him.

Kait nodded and retrieved his small trash bin and placed it on the floor at the head of his bed. 

“Just in case you need it.” She said. Then she grabbed the clock sitting on the beside table and set his alarm for the next morning. The final touch was finding his canteen and filling it with fresh cold water from his room’s small sink, and placing it next to the clock. “There. Now try to sleep off some of those stupid decisions you drank.” 

JD chuckled, then groaned at the way his stomach stirred. He rolled onto his side, his arm sticking to his shirt from all the lotion.

“S’all your fault.” He muttered, trying to smile to show he had no hard feelings. The gesture came out as an involuntary grimace as a shiver ran through him.

“I’m the worst.” She agreed with a smile, pulling up the military-grey wool blanket and draping it over his body. JD grasped at it and tugged it under his chin, feeling it scratch against his beard. “If I don’t see you at breakfast, I’ll assume the kumis killed you and I’ll be by to help Fahz move in.”

“Please don’t make me think about food right now.” JD mumbled, burying his face into the blanket and scrunching his nose. Her footsteps walked away from him, and he aimed a small wave in her direction. “Night.”

The lights flicked off and JD let his eyes slip shut as he heard his door open and then close again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a small reference to Gears of War: Ascendance in this chapter. See if you can spot it!

The flight to Vasgar was less than pleasant for JD. 

The kumis had kept him up for several hours as his body stubbornly refused to accept the fermented milk. Most of the night was alternating between fevers and chills and trying to find a comfortable position that wouldn’t irritate his stomach.

After a shower things were looking a little more optimistic. JD managed to eat two slices of dry toast and half an apple, and opted for a cup of steaming mint tea over his usual black coffee. He remembered being a small child with the stomach flu and his mother giving him a mug of lukewarm mint tea to drink while she stroked his hair. He didn’t know if it actually did anything to help his upset stomach, but it was a drink he always felt comforting.

Just when he thought he was coming out of his kumis-induced funk, they boarded their Vulture and took off for Vasgar. The first few hours had been a normal, mild flight and JD managed to doze a little to try and catch up on his missed sleep. 

Then the turbulence started.

All his optimism vanished after the fourth shaking drop of the Vulture. His stomach was clenched again, and it felt as though a hot burning hand was trying to crawl up his throat to escape.

Another jostling of the plane and JD couldn’t help it anymore. He hurriedly unbuckled his seat harness and stumbled to the small airplane bathroom with open desperation. He’d barely managed to close the door before he was gagging into the sink. Nothing came up, but his stomach was roiling and it was making his hands shake and a fierce cold sweat blossomed across his brow. 

JD trembled and clutched the sink and dared not to move for fear that any movement would make things worse. Then a hard jolt and a sickening drop as the Vulture hit another pocket of turbulence and JD’s breakfast came rushing back up.

He convulsed involuntarily, vomiting once, twice, then a final, weak third time. JD braced his forearm across the bulkhead in front of him and rest his forehead against the limb as he shakily gulped back air. Fumbling blindly, he managed to turn on the faucet and flush out the sink, then using a trembling hand JD scooped up some water and rinsed his mouth. 

Much to his relief the nausea had faded abruptly with the vomiting, even as the airplane continued to shake under his boots. All that was left was to recover from the sudden and violent retching and steady himself.

JD stared at himself in the small cloudy bathroom mirror and saw how ghastly pale he was, his skin sparkling with fresh sweat. Splashing cold water on his face helped him feel better, and after towelling off he noted a small hint of pink had returned to his cheeks. Holding his hands out JD saw that the trembling had faded enough to be barely noticeable, and he decided he was decent enough to return to the group in the cargo bay.

Taking a deep breath, JD slid the folding door open and was greeted by a heavily entertained Fahz. 

“Want a snack?” Fahz grinned evilly and held up a small container of yogurt, clearly pilfered from the officer’s mess that morning for the sole purpose of torturing JD. 

JD took one look at the proffered yogurt, let out a choked involuntary groan, and urgently locked himself in the bathroom again. He could hear Fahz’s bellowing laughter outside the door and Kait’s scolding disapproval as he heaved into the sink. 

Only burning bile was left in his stomach but he vomited it up anyway, buckled over as his body spasmed. He coughed and spat and forced himself to take deep breaths, resisting the urge to curse and yell at Fahz through the door. 

It took several minutes for his nausea relapse to fade, but when it did JD splashed water on his face again and wiped himself down with a paper towel. He hated that his hands had started shaking again, but he was too impatient to wait for them to stop. The bathroom smelled of vomit and he just wanted to leave the cramped space.

With significantly more hesitance that before, JD slid the door aside. He took a moment to peek around and make sure Fahz wasn’t waiting for him again, and when the coast was clear he made his exit.

Fahz had returned to his seat and was gleefully eating the yogurt he’d mocked JD with just minutes before. JD forced himself not to look at the other Gear as he stomped past.

“Feel better?” Kait said as he flopped down next to her.

“I’ll feel better when I murder Fahz in his sleep.” He gritted out, rubbing his buzzed scalp to try and hide the fact his hands were still shaking.

“I would have stopped him, but he’s damn sneaky when he wants to be.” She shook her head, one side of her mouth tilting up in poorly concealed mirth. JD couldn’t blame her for finding it a little funny. If the situation had been reversed and she was the one with the upset stomach, he might have found Fahz’s stunt a little amusing too. JD shot her a forgiving smile.

“I do feel better though.” He said thoughtfully. Kait handed him his canteen, and the cold water felt astonishingly good on his newly emptied stomach. “I think the worst of it is over, as long as Fahz doesn’t have any more surprise dairy.”

They were seated along the side of the fuselage with the massive Grindlift rig taking up the majority of the cargo bay. The large machine rattled loudly every time the plane shook, but the straps binding its wheels held it firmly in place.

Cole and the elder Fenix were on the other side, cleaning their weapons and talking. Occasionally JD could hear one of Cole’s exuberant exclamations over the roar of the plane engines.

Dave, the repaired and revived robot companion, fluttered about the cargo bay. JD wasn’t sure what the bot was up to, but it looked like it was busy inspecting and performing minor repairs to the Grindlift rig. He presumed it was a task Baird had assigned to the little bot prior to takeoff.

“I wish Del was here.” JD muttered, not for the first time. He took another drink of water from his canteen and turned to look at Kait. “This mission would have been right up his alley.”

“Exploring uncharted territory to investigate a mystery of unknown origin? Yeah, he would have enjoyed this.” Kait agreed, a sad, reminiscent lilt to her voice.

“I think Dave misses him.” He pointed the mouth of his canteen at the grey robot as he puttered around the back of the bulky rig.

“I remind you, once again, that Dave is a robot.” Kait sighed, slumping back in her seat.

“I know,” JD smiled at her. “But look at him. Doesn’t he just look…sad?”

“Stop putting human emotions onto something that definitely is not human.” 

Baird had promised a few months ago that another JACK model was in progress, but other efforts had delayed the project. In the meantime, it had been quicker for Baird to repair the less-equipped Dave. Delta had lost the combat modules that had made Jack so useful in their firefights, but Dave was still a welcome addition to the team.

JD rummaged through his pack and pulled out the blue jar of ointment for his arm. They still had some time before landing, and the doctor had insisted he apply the goo five times per day while they were in Vasgar, rather than the usual three. The harsher climate, with the scorching sun, burning windflares, and dry, coarse sand would not do his new skin any favours. The doctor had even provided JD with a gloved sleeve to wear over his arm to help protect it, but JD wasn’t convinced that was totally necessary, and the garment lay crumpled at the bottom of his pack.

The chemical smell of the lotion permeated the air of the cargo bay as JD worked it into his skin.

“Oi mate, do you have to do that now?” Fahz complained, his nose crinkling and pushing the glasses a little up his face. “Bloody stinks.”

“You,” JD stabbed a freshly gooped finger in Fahz’s direction. “Do not get to complain after that yogurt stunt.”

“You know, if you’d just let them lop your arm off your life would be a lot easier. And less messy.” The Vasgari jerked his thumb at his prosthetic leg. “I speak from experience.”

“Sure, but then I wouldn’t be able to do this,” JD closed his hand into a fist, but left the middle finger up and pointed at Fahz. Kait smiled and shook her head beside him.

“Awful bold for a man taken down by a little sour milk.” The other man said with a laugh.

JD had a cursing remark poised on the tip of his tongue, but his father appeared around the side of the Grindlift rig.

“Heads up,” Marcus grunted. “Just got word from Paduk on the ground.” He held a military green satchel in one hand, its straps nearly dragging on the ground.

“What’s the news?” JD asked, screwing the lid back on the ointment jar and tossing it back into his duffle.

“Something’s messing with their radios. Almost didn’t get the signal through to us.”

“Swarm?” Kait asked, a grim expression settling over her face.

“They don’t think so. Something else appears to be interfering with the signal.” Marcus said gruffly with a shake of his head. “But they warned us their navigational equipment isn’t working either. Issue started this morning.”

“So what’s that mean for us?” Kait leaned forward in her seat.

“Baird seems to think something is weird with the local magnetic field and it's causing the navigational problems.” The old Gear leaned against the side of the rig. “The affected area seems to be right around the same place this seismic activity is coming from. The radio interference is affecting the same area.”

“So whatever we’re looking for just got a lot more interesting.” JD moved to cross his arms, but stopped when he remembered he’d just smeared his right arm with lotion.

“So it would seem. Suit up,” Marcus tossed the green satchel to Fahz. “We won’t be able to land this bird if we get caught in the same interference.”

“Please tell me you’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting.” Kait uttered warily, eyeing the pack Fahz clutched.

“Dave,” Marcus barked. The little grey robot appeared from behind the rig, its blue optics reflecting off the heavy metal machine. “Prep the rig for a drop.” Without any further instruction, Dave wandered off to begin its work.

“Oh, this is gonna be fuckin’ nuts!” Fahz grinned with genuine enthusiasm. He stood and eagerly grabbed for his armour.

“Fuck.” Kait muttered, pulling her armour on with significantly less excitement.

“Not ideal.” JD agreed, checking the straps on her armour, then giving her a pat of confirmation on her shoulder and turning so she could do the same for him. “But you’ve done drops before, right?”

“I’ve done _a_ drop. Singular. And it wasn’t by choice. Someone,” Kait shot Marcus a quick glare. Marcus was busy pulling on his own gear and didn’t see the look she sent him. “Pushed me out of a Condor.”

“At least he was nice enough to make sure you were wearing a parachute first.” JD grinned even though she couldn’t see it. He felt her tug on a strap along his rib cage, ensuring it was snug, then do the same on the other side.

“‘Nice’ is not the word I had in mind at the time.”

Fahz appeared in front of JD, wordlessly turning so he could look over the armour. Despite the constant jokes at each other’s expense, they never kidded when it came to making sure they were combat ready. As Kait continued to tug on JD’s armour, JD began verifying Fahz’s. He caught a few straps that he managed to cinch tighter, then slapped Fahz on the arm to let him know he was ready.

Then came the parachutes.

They were military COG parachutes, designed to attach to their bulky armour. Fahz donned his first, the most experienced parachuter of the three of them. With his instruction, they helped ensure the pack was properly latched and secure on his back. JD gave the parachute two hard pulls to make sure it wasn’t going to fall off, nearly yanking Fahz backwards onto his ass in the process.

After ten more minutes, JD and Kait were strapped into their packs and Fahz was diligently verifying they were ready to drop.

With Cole’s help, Dave was busy attaching a series of green, fabric bundles to various points on the rig. Cole was holding the satchels in place over designated locations, while Dave used his manipulators to screw, bolt, and even weld them down. The result had the Grindlift rig looking like it had sprouted several unsightly, lumpy growths.

“Alright,” Marcus yelled so his voice could be heard over the rumble of the turbine engines. “We’ll be over the drop zone in ten minutes. Make sure you’re ready to go then.” 

JD and the others nodded and grabbed their packs of personal gear, strapping them to their chest plates. Pistols were secured in their holsters, and they each had their rifle of choice slung along their sides, the barrels pointing at the ground. Most of their bulkier supplies were stowed within the Grindlift rig, but much of their additional ammo, grenades, and rations were stored at their waists in utility belts, or in the cargo pockets of their fatigue pants. 

“I hate this.” Kate grumbled.

“I _love_ this.” Fahz responded, grinning manically.

“And I…” JD paused to mull for a moment. “I’m gonna have to go with Fahz on this one. I love this.” He decided, smirking at Kait.

“Seriously? You actually enjoy this?” She arched an unimpressed eyebrow at the two other Gears.

“What?” He said with a shrug, his smile spreading wide across his face. “It’s pretty fun when no one’s shooting at you.”

“Idiots.” She hissed with a roll of her eyes, making the other two chuckle. “If you’re going to do any more puking, make sure you aim it away from me.” Kait added with an accusatory finger jabbed at JD.

All the excitement of getting ready had made him forget about his upset stomach, and JD took a moment to wonder if their unscheduled skydive would bring the nausea back. He desperately hoped it wouldn’t.

“Alright, baby!” Cole yelled, clapping his big hands then rubbing together enthusiastically. “Who’s goin’ first?” His parachute was a tiny green bump on the back of his huge armour, looking almost too small to be effective. 

“I think Kait should have the honours.” Fahz said, his eyes glinting behind his sunglasses as he gave her a mockingly courteous bow.

“And I think you should go fuck yourself.” She retorted instantly, her face stormy.

JD’s eyebrows shot up in entertained surprise and he gave a quick low whistle. “You really don’t want to do this, do you?” He teased. It earned him a deadly glare and he raised his hands in surrender and took a small step back.

“The rig goes first.” Marcus ordered humourlessly, coming up to the group. “It drops, and then we jump right after it.”

“I’ll hold your hand if it makes you feel better.” Fahz’s voice took on a false sweetness as he leaned toward Kait and offered a hand, palm up. Her mouth thinned into a hard line and she ignored him. 

“Dave, you’re in the rig for the drop.” The elder Fenix pointed at the cab of the massive machine. The robot finished undoing the last straps holding the wheels in place, then bobbed his optics—what JD assumed was the robot equivalent of a nod—and buzzed off to secure himself inside the rig. “We need to get into position.”

They formed two lines behind the rig; Fahz, Kait, and JD on one side, Marcus and Cole on the other.

There were a series of signal lights around the cabin that lit up in bright red light. Kait shuffled on her feet in front of JD, clearly trying to psych herself up. She tugged on the old mechanic’s goggles from their last venture through the Vasgari desert, and JD pulled on his own set. His father and Cole each had a more modern, streamlined transparent set of goggles covering their eyes, and Fahz had attached a strap to his glasses to secure them tightly to his face.

The lights turned yellow and the cargo bay door yawned open. Dry air blasted through the cabin, making Fahz’s mohawk blow to one side and Kait’s braid flail wildly. JD reached out and grabbed the braid and tucked it under the back of her armour, which earned him a quick nod of thanks even though he knew it was going to come loose again once she jumped.

The cargo ramp extended fully and there was several seconds of waiting, the wind howling around them. Then the lights shifted to green and the enormous rig rolled backwards and disappeared into the open air, tailgate first, the group hot on its bumper. 

“Let’s go!” Cole yelled excitedly, and they ran down the open ramp.

Fahz barrelled forward and used his last step to vault and do a forward flip, laughing as gravity swept him away. JD saw his father and uncle make their dives, Cole leaping and striking an old Thrashball victory pose as he fell, a vibrant “Woo!” on his face even though the howling wind sucked it away.

JD was right on Kait’s heels, ready to give her an encouraging nudge—which he promised himself would most definitely not be a shove—out of the plane if she suddenly chickened out. They couldn’t have her missing the drop zone and forcing the team to divert and pick her up.

But despite her previous grumbling about their surprise skydive, Kait made the leap with no hesitation, and JD followed right behind.

He spun for the first few seconds while his stomach tried to climb up his throat. It wasn’t the nausea he’d been dealing with all morning, but rather the adrenaline-inducing sensation of being in free-fall. 

His vision was a blur of the red landscape below, and the blue sky above, spinning over and over before he could steady his fall. JD spread his arms and legs wide and stabilized himself, letting a grin stretch his face as he enjoyed the blissful moment of weightlessness.

A quick glance beneath him showed the small rectangle of the falling rig, and four figures in a controlled fall like his own. The person the farthest away tucked their arms and legs in and rolled in the air, entering a quick spin before splaying wide again. A slight adjustment of their legs had them entering a wide head-first spiralling dive that was almost more dance than a fall. JD would have to ask Fahz later how he did his aerobatic stunts.

The world below was a ruin of old buildings and roads, swept over with the bold red sand that was so iconic of Vasgar. There were great chasms and sinkholes that had devoured entire rows of houses, and JD pictured the Corpsers and Brumaks crawling their way out of the holes on Emergence Day. Off in the distance a huge swatch of land had collapsed away, sunken deep into a hollow beneath the earth. He wondered briefly if it had been the infamous Riftworm that had destroyed the city.

JD pulled his arms and legs to his side to streamline himself and he closed the distance between him and Kait. He slowed his descent once he was about twenty feet off her left side, and he waved at her, still grinning widely. When she looked in his direction he gave two excited thumbs up, and Kait responded with such a drastic roll of the eyes he could see it despite the goggles on her face.

A plume of green appeared in his peripheral, and JD looked down to see several parachutes unfolding around the rig. Moments later, three smaller parachutes burst to life much closer.

Sad that the best part of the drop was over, JD reached for his ripcord and pulled. There was a moment of vibration from the back of his armour as the parachute unfurled and shot upwards, then a jarring jolt as his descent abruptly lessened. His stomach clenched a little in protest, but there was no urge to vomit and for that JD was grateful.

JD grasped for the handles above his head and twisted around to spot Kait above his right shoulder, her own parachute holding her aloft.

There was a faint breeze off the desert plains and it pushed their descent toward the coastline enough that each of them had to steer themselves closer to the rig as it dropped. It’s significantly heavier weight meant its dive was more linear and less influenced by the wind, though it did drift to and fro ever so slightly.

It was several minutes of quiet descent, the warm air of the desert brushing over his new skin in a way JD thought he’d never feel again. It was peaceful and even a little relaxing, drifting along with the breeze. It was almost enough to make him forget about their war with the Swarm, the friends and loved ones they had lost along the way. His chest ached as he thought of Del again and how much his friend would have enjoyed the jump and their investigative mission.

It was all over too soon when the ground rose to meet him, and he pulled on both handles to reduce his speed. JD hit the sandy ground at a run, his parachute collapsing to the ground behind him. He came to a stop and unbuckled the straps where they attached to his armour. 

Around him, Fahz was already bundling up his parachute, and Marcus and Cole were still undoing their straps.

Kait was the last to arrive, and she hit the ground with a _thwump_. She grunted as her legs crumpled and she fell to her knees briefly, the red sand absorbing her weight. Leaving his parachute on the ground, JD jogged to her side and grabbed an arm to help her back to her feet.

“Still hate it.” She gritted through her teeth, staggering a little in the soft sand. JD released her arm when he was confident she was stable.

“At least it was a nice view.” He offered, but she didn’t respond.

Ten minutes later they had their parachutes packed up and had gathered into a rough circle, their weapons unslung and ready for combat. 

“We all good to go?” JD asked, looking at each of them in turn. They all nodded. “Then let's hop in our ride and get going.”


	4. Chapter 4

The Grindlift rig had landed several dozen feet away, landing squarely on all six tires and on fairly level terrain as well. JD considered it lucky that the big machine hadn’t landed on one of the collapsed buildings that lay scattered around.

They had managed to touch down along the outskirts of the city, and the mission would have them trekking in towards the old city centre. JD hoped their rig could handle the drive through the destroyed city, but it was a big sturdy machine with oversized knobbly tires meant for rough terrain. And if Paduk and his nomads were already on site then perhaps they had cleared a decent path.

One of the side hatches opened as they approached and Dave zipped out, buzzing along the body of the rig and detaching the parachutes. Fahz and Cole gathered up the fabric and the lines, while JD, Marcus and Kait reviewed their data.

JD tried to pull up their location on his navigational gear, but the indicator flailed about on the screen, refusing to settle and show him any solid coordinates. Kait tried her own nav gear, but saw the same results.

Even the tiny button-sized compass—a small attachment on his belt that JD often forgot about—spun wildly, the needle swinging around and around endlessly.

“Ca— read m—“ Static blasted in his ear piece and JD and the rest of them paused to listen. “Sho—sta—enix…”

“That sounded like Paduk.” Kait observed, fingers pressed to her ear as she concentrated on the transmission.

“Probably saw us drop.” Marcus said.

Then there was a blast of static with a high whine of feedback, making them all wince. The feedback faded after a few seconds, then a shrill beeping took over. It was a series of short, staccato sounds mixed with longer beeps. It seemed random and uncoordinated, and after a minute it stopped and the line went dead.

“Paduk, do you read?” JD asked once the radio went quiet. Low static garbled in his ear, then he heard a couple quick clips of the Gorasni’s accent come through. It wasn’t enough to make out any sort of information or words, and JD scowled and turned his face towards the centre of the old city. 

He tried changing radio channels and calling to Paduk, and the beeping sputtered in his ear again. The next channel did the same thing, and the next.

JD sighed in frustration and dropped his fingers from his ear. “Great.”

“That radio interference is getting worse.” Marcus rumbled, his eyes scanning the terrain around them as he clutched his Lancer a little tighter.

“What was all that beeping?” Fahz asked, shoving an armful of parachute into a storage hatch on the side of the rig.

“The mystery signal?” Kait shrugged.

“Let’s get on board and go find them.” JD said with a nod towards the rig.

The group piled aboard the rig with Fahz quickly shouting that he was driving. No one objected, and he settled in the cab and keyed the engine. The machine growled to life, a plume of black smoke rising from an exhaust pipe along the rear roof.

The rig was smaller than its older ancestors. JD had seen the military rigs repurposed and used for transporting people and supplies to and from settlements. They were always mammoth vehicles, capable of carrying dozens of people on multiple levels. The old COG models had been equipped with turrets and heavy armour, but their current rig was a more streamlined design, meant more for speed than combat. 

Dizzy, if the crazy cowboy was still out there somewhere, would probably scoff at their comparatively tiny machine. Even if it wasn’t half the size of old Betty, the rig was still a force to be reckoned with. 

JD and the others stood on its roof and swayed with the rocking of the vehicle. The Grindlifts themselves were strapped down on the aft section, laying on their sides and nestled tightly together. Even they were smaller than the Grindlifts of old. Baird had clearly adjusted their design since their last use in the Hollow assault.

JD didn’t know how he felt about climbing into one of those cylinders and burrowing through the soil. He’d heard how terrible the originals had been, and despite being redesigned by Baird, he didn’t doubt the ride would still be awful. JD would have rather climbed down into an open shaft or blasted or drilled their way down. Hopping in a Grindlift would leave him blind and at the whim of the machine, frantically hoping it knew how to get them to their destination safely.

They didn’t know exactly where Paduk and his nomad’s were stationed, but they knew it was near the city centre, so that was where they were headed. With their nav gear out of commission, they had to rely on old orienteering skills to try and navigate their way. And with the magnetic interference rendering their compasses useless, they had to use the sun’s position as their guide. 

Thankfully they had an old paper map that Baird had scrounged up prior to the mission, and they used it for direction as best they could. Kait would call directions down to Fahz in the cab, who would steer the rig through the ruined streets. His driving was a little rough for JD’s taste, but Fahz was making good time.

They drove on for a long time, the rig thundering over rubble and threading its way through demolished streets. The houses grew more numerous as they went, and large buildings began appearing along the roadside. Another kilometre or so, and there were no houses anymore, just all buildings, warehouses, and factories. 

They all kept their eyes trained on their surroundings, wary of any enemies that might be hiding behind broken windows or half-crumbled walls. Every time they turned a corner the group tensed, ready for an ambush.

But aside from a few rodents and the odd lizard, there was no life in the ruined city.

“Fenix,” Paduk’s voice was in his ear again, stronger than before. There was still static, but it was faded enough JD could make out the nomad’s frustrated voice. “Can you hear me?!”

“I read you, Paduk. There’s a lot of interference.” He said, his tone all business. Paduk hadn’t specified which Fenix he had been trying to reach, but as the ranking officer it was JD’s responsibility to respond.

“Yes,” the Gorasni grumbled. The shrill beeping was still going on, but it was fainter and settled into the background noise on the channel. “Radio communication is spotty at best. We’re sending coordinates now for our rendezvous.” 

A moment later Dave buzzed and waggled his body in the air, confirming he had received the coordinates Paduk had promised. Kait handed the paper map off to one of Dave’s manipulators, and the robot maneuvered down the small walkway along the side of the rig to the cab door and slid inside to convey the directions to Fahz.

“Anything we should worry about on the way?” JD asked, his eyes darting around the dilapidated buildings. He didn’t like the quiet, having grown too used to Swarm ambushes and raids. Quiet usually meant things were watching them, waiting for a chance to strike. The quiet prickled at the back of his neck and made his muscles tighten and his trigger finger twitch.

“Things have been very peaceful,” Paduk explained, the suspicion plain in his voice. He clearly didn’t enjoy the quiet any more than JD did. “But be ready for surprises. Paduk out.”

His radio crackled again and Fahz’s voice came through. “Does anyone else feel like we’re heading straight into some sort of trap?”

Marcus grunted and scowled up at the buildings while Kait sighted up the scope on her Longshot and peered ahead of them.

“If the Swarm want to throw the Cole Train a party, then I promise to act surprised!” Cole laughed and grinned wide in his typical manner. 

The drive continued on and so did the quiet. The rocking of the rig made JD’s stomach sway and his nausea crept back in, slowly but steadily. He tried his best to compensate for the motions by shifting on his feet with every bump and tilt, but it did little to help.

JD focused on the road ahead and forced himself to think of anything other than his turbulent stomach and the way he felt cold in the overbearing heat of the sun. Kait appeared at his side and he felt her tug the canteen from his belt and force it into his hand.

“Give the word and we’ll stop.” She said quietly. The rumble of the engine and the crunch of the rubbled beneath the tires prevented her voice from travelling to Marcus and Cole, but JD knew his father could see his discomfort and just chose to remain silent.

“I’ll be alright.” He chugged back two big mouthfuls of water and felt a bit of relief. 

“Keep drinking.” Kait ordered, her tone firm but concerned as she coaxed the canteen back up to his face. “You’re sweating a lot.” For the briefest moment JD saw a hint of Reyna’s fire in her eyes.

“Yes, ma’am.” He responded in cheeky obedience, smirking and taking another drink.

“Don’t be an ass about it.” Kait chuckled, giving his shoulder a light punch.

“I wouldn’t dare.”

Another twenty minutes rolled by, and JD’s stomach kept churning but the discomfort had receded enough that it was easily pushed to the back of his mind. The rig was nearing the heart of the old city; the buildings growing larger and more impressive with every kilometre. 

It was a very different trip than their last journey to Vasgar. Aside from his upset stomach, the ride was much smoother and more enjoyable. The skiff they’d used to sail the desert last time had certainly been a thrill, but navigating through fiery lightning flurries had ruined the experience for JD. The massive derrick was slow and lumbering, but at least he didn’t have to worry about falling off with each turn or getting struck by lightning or crashing into a razor sharp glass tree.

“Everyone down!” Marcus barked suddenly, squatting low behind the rig’s upper railing.

JD, Kait and Cole didn’t question the order and immediately hunkered down. Fahz slowed the rig slightly, and JD fought to listen for any sound other than the engine.

His father peered up quickly, eyes staring hard at a building ahead of them on their right side. Then the old man relaxed and stood up.

“False alarm,” he said, pointing ahead of them. “Look.”

There was a man atop the building, standing tall and waving at them. He was dressed in the sand and green garments and armour of Paduk’s nomads. Dangling at his waist was a shiny unpainted Embar rifle.

JD waved back and heard the man shout in rapid, unrecognizable speech. While he couldn’t tell what he was saying, the nomad’s body language was open and welcoming and he waved them forward.

“Looks like he’s our guide. Fahz,” he called through his radio. “We’ve got someone showing us the way.”

“Roger that.” The rig rumbled up to full speed again and they followed the nomad after he had descended from atop the building.

It was only a few minutes after that before they rolled through a gated checkpoint, dusty-faced nomads peering at them suspiciously. They muttered amongst themselves, gesturing at their Grindlift rig and following behind them to study the big machine. 

“And there’s the old man himself.” Fahz piped up through the radio. 

Up ahead Paduk stood waiting for them, his arms crossed over his chest plate with that perpetually unimpressed look on his face.

“Surprise surprise,” JD muttered. “He’s not happy to see us.”

“Can you blame him? We only show up when we need something from him. And we’re _COG_.”

Paduk looked about the same as the last time they had seen him. His hair was trimmed shorter—clearly a haircut done himself with a knife—and maybe there were a few extra scars, but he was still the same old Gorasnayan. 

“Welcome children.” Paduk sounded as annoyed and petulant as he had the last time they had seen him. He stepped forward as the group disembarked their rig.

JD managed to keep the surprise from his face when Paduk offered him his hand to shake. Paduk might have been old, but his grip was as strong as any man’s half his age and JD tried not to wince as his hand was crushed in a vice grip.

Kait got a handshake along with a friendly pat on the arm, which was a level of affection that bordered on the obscene when coming from the old UIR Major. Marcus and Paduk shared a respectful soldier’s handshake, and Cole—being Cole—scooped the other man up into a bear hug, earning him an earful of grunted obscenities.

“Paduk, baby! How you been, man?” Cole exclaimed with his big grin. Paduk muttered something in Gorasni that did not sound as cranky as JD would have expected, and the old man managed to free a hand to give Cole a tolerant pat on the back.

After Cole had dropped the disgruntled nomad back onto the ground, Paduk waved the rest of them forward. “Come. I will show you what Baird has planned.”

The rest of the nomads had gathered and were inspecting the Grindlift rig, some even climbing up onto its roof to examine it.

“Uh, they’re not going to touch anything, right?” Fahz asked. “We’re not going to come back and find it propped up cinderblocks with no wheels?”

Paduk shot him a glare, then barked out something in a language none of them recognized. The one of the nomads yelled something back and waved them off as they poked around the rig, exploring the cab and opening the storage compartments to peer inside. One of them prodded Dave with the muzzle of his rifle, and the bot buzzed and chirped indignantly.

“They will leave it intact. They’re just satisfying their curiosity.” Paduk said.

“Yeah? Well our gear better still be there when we get back, otherwise I’m gonna get real _curious_ with the business end of my Lancer.” Fahz hissed, motioning to his eyes with two fingers then pointing them warningly at a nearby nomad.

“Don’t worry, they have their orders. Baird sent some _payment_ two days ago to ensure our help.” Paduk led the group passed a big stockpile of crates and boxes, each one sporting the COG seal in bright yellow paint.

JD paused and lifted the lid on one of the boxes and saw dozens of military ration packs. Another crate was filled with ammo, and unpainted Enforcers were spilling out of a third. They had clearly been taken directly from the factory assembly line, boxed up and shipped out before they could be painted and counted as part of official COG inventory.

“Guns, ammo and food. The true way to a soldier’s heart.” Kait mused.

The nomads had cordoned off an intact section of the the Vasgari city, with worn tall buildings surrounding them on all sides. It provided welcome shade from the harsh desert sun, and it left them with plenty of covered space to occupy. Scavenging of the buildings was well under way, with crates and boxes covering the sidewalks. 

They entered the base of an opulent sandstone structure with glossy dark windows that had faded over the years. Based on the architecture and worn decorations, JD guessed it had been a high-end hotel. 

Where the front desk had been located, the nomads had covered it with an assortment of crude computer consoles and radios. JD supposed it was their base of operations. 

Paduk led the group to a corner of the large room where a low table sat surrounded by several faded plush chairs and sofas.

The nomad dropped into one of the chairs, sending up a cloud of dust and sand. Cole flopped onto one of the sofas, and it creaked ominously under his bulk while JD and Kait sat across from them.

The low table had an old map spread atop it and JD leaned forward to peer at it. A series of red lines had been scrawled on the paper, with one huge area circled.

“As you no doubt saw, half of this city has been sunk. We don’t know when it happened, but we have reason to believe it was the Locust Riftworm that did it.” Paduk traced his finger over the large area circled off. “The seismic activity Baird detected is located here,” he jabbed his finger toward the east side of the circle, deep in the heart of the collapsed section of the city.

“Of course. Nothing’s ever easy, is it?” Fahz sneered down at the map, leaning over the back of JD’s sofa.

Paduk ignored him and continued. “Two days ago Baird sent some of his little round robots. Looked like balls. What are they called? Packers?”

“You mean Trackers?” Cole asked, an eyebrow arched.

“Yes, Trackers. Small robots to handle the broken terrain. Baird armed them with sonic resonators and two of them managed to find a way below the surface.” Two small dots on the map indicated their insertion points. “Luckily for you, when the city collapsed many of the Locust tunnels beneath remained intact. The Trackers deployed their sonic resonators and we have a detailed map of what lies under there.”

“I hate this plan more and more.” Fahz grumbled.

“Based on the data, Baird wants you to use your machine to drill down here.” Paduk pointed to a red X near the northern edge of the collapsed city, a series of coordinates scrawled nearby. “There are tunnels there that will lead you toward the source of this strange signal. I will have one of my men upload the map data into your Jack.”

“Dave. This one’s name is Dave.” Kait corrected. 

Paduk gave a dismissive shrug. “Whatever. From the insertion point you will find the source of Baird’s signal, retrieve it if you can, then return for evac.”

“That insertion point seems kind of far away,” JD tilted his head to read the map key. “A few kilometres away at least. Do we know what things look like down there? If we’re moving on foot, this could take hours if we’re lucky. Days if we’re not.” At that, Fahz let out a choked sound and tried to cover it by clearing his throat.

“The sonic resonators show the way is open, but I would expect it to be a difficult journey. I would pack accordingly.” Paduk rose to his feet. “It’s too late in the day to go now, so take the time to prepare. You three can set up your tents near your machine.” Then the old nomad turned to Marcus and Cole. “You two, come with me. We will drink and talk.”

“Ooh you know how to woo the Cole Train, baby!” Cole grinned and followed happily, Marcus in tow.

“So they’re off to be reminiscent old men,” Kait said with a sigh. “And we get stuck with all the work.”

“With age comes privilege?” JD offered. “Come on, I’ll show you the best way to keep the scorpions out of the tents.”

“You know I forgot why I hated it here, and you just reminded me.” The sarcasm dripped from Fahz’s tone.

“You had your chance to bow out and you still decided to come along.” Kait teased. “You’re not allowed to complain anymore.” 

“I don’t call it _complaining_ , I call it charming and witty commentary on our current situation.” Fahz smirked, following the two of them out of the old hotel. “And if this mission goes tits up—and I guarantee it will—you’re going to hear a lot of it.”


	5. Chapter 5

The desert night was alarmingly cold. JD remembered this from his survival training, but he had forgotten just how biting the air could be. 

The nomads had helped them build a fire near their parked rig, using wood from broken furniture and the dilapidated buildings. It took an hour of careful tending, then it roared and cast dancing shadows into the darkness. 

JD, Fahz, and Kait sat around the fire, chewing on their military rations and listening to their quiet surroundings. The crackle of the fire occasionally sounded like faint gunshots, making them eye the broken buildings warily.

Marcus and Cole were still off with Paduk somewhere but every so often they could hear Cole’s distant echoing laughter. 

JD still didn’t like how peaceful the broken city was. The last time they’d been to Vasgar they had been storming through hoards of Swarm, and now there wasn’t a single trace of them. Granted that mission had them on the other side of the country, but even still the calm felt _wrong_.

He tried to ease himself with the knowledge that there was an established perimeter around their temporary base with sentries on watch duty. If the Swarm suddenly decided to make an appearance, they would know in seconds. As a bonus, Baird’s ‘peace offering’ also ensured the nomads were armed to the teeth.

JD crunched into a dry cracker and watched the fire dance, trying to ignore how much the heat and light reminded him of the Hammer of Dawn’s blazing laser. His arm itched and he scratched at it absently, making a mental note to reapply his medicinal salve soon before the fragile skin dried out.

“Oi, what’d you get?” Fahz asked, leaning over to root through JD’s ration pack. He pulled out a fat shiny pouch and angled it so he could read the label in the fire’s light. “Chicken and vegetable stew. Huh. Wanna trade?”

JD gave him a sidelong glance as he swallowed his mouthful of cracker. “That’s the best one and you know it. If you want it, you'll have to make it worth my while. What have you got?”

Fahz held up a similar shiny pouch. “Lamb curry. And I’ll toss in…” he rummaged around in his ration kit and pulled out a small packet and a foil-wrapped rectangular item. “My hot sauce and this chocolate…thing.” He turned the chocolate bar over in his hands, evidently looking for the label, then gave up and held it out to JD.

“I don’t know…” JD narrowed his eyes and took another bite of his cracker, pretending to mull over the offering if only to make Fahz squirm.

“Come on, mate. You know I hate this curry shit.”

“You’re doing a great job of enticing me to it.” JD pointed out flatly, then he reached out and took the three items. “Fine, have at it.”

Fahz looked delighted and relieved as he tore into the pouch of chicken stew.

“Really? You can handle curry right now? With your stomach?” Kait said from behind her pouch of half-eaten sausage casserole—JD’s least favourite MRE option. 

“I haven’t puked in,” JD glanced down at the digital readout on the inside of his wrist. “Six and a half hours. If I’m not better by now, I’m not getting better.” He ripped the top off the pouch and tossed the scrap into the fire.

The beef curry was not his favourite, but it wasn’t awful. Despite the pungent scent, the mixture was bland and too runny. Squeezing in Fahz’s hot sauce didn’t improve the texture, but it marginally improved the flavour and made his tongue burn enough to forget what he was eating. JD stirred the mixture with a plastic spoon and ate contentedly, actually feeling hungry for the first time in nearly twenty-six hours.

“So,” Fahz started after he’d finished his meal and tossed the empty stew pouch into the fire. “What do you reckon this mystery whats-it is?”

“Let’s examine the facts.” Kait said. “It’s causing seismic disturbances, frigging with our radios, and messing with our nav gear.”

“And it’s buried under a few thousand tons of demolished city.” JD added.

“Please stop reminding me.” Fahz groaned, his eyes casting upwards. His sunglasses, ever present, were perched atop his head.

“Del would have had this all figured out.” The pain of Del’s death still lingered, but time had helped. Now, whenever JD thought of his friend—his brother—the good thoughts outweighed the bad, and he supposed that was a good sign. The hatred and the anger for the Swarm was still there, still burning away in his heart, but it wasn’t all-encompassing like it had been those first few weeks after Del’s death.

“Oh yeah,” Kait agreed with a smile. “He would have had Dave running scans and taking samples already.”

It helped, talking about Del with Kait. Grief was so common in their world, death and loss so frequent. Everyone understood what it was to lose someone, whether it was to the Locust decades ago, to the Swarm more recently, or just to the harsh nature of Sera. That had been the only consolation for the longest time, knowing that he never had to explain what he was going through.  
Eventually, JD knew, Del’s absence would fade to a dull ache just like his mother’s death had. He would still miss Del but he would have all those great, happy memories to think back on and he would smile.

“I think,” Fahz ripped open another ration pouch and dug in with his spoon. He scooped up a mound of preserved fruit and shoved it into his mouth.

“Always a dangerous notion.” JD interjected quickly, taking advantage of Fahz’s brief pause. 

“Sod off,” Fahz muttered through his mouthful of fruit. “I think if it’s causing seismic activity, then it’s got to be massive, right? Little things don’t cause earthquakes.”

“It’s not causing _earthquakes_.” Kait corrected. “It’s…I dunno, resonating?”

“Well, look who’s read the mission briefing.” Fahz scoffed mockingly.

“You haven’t?” She asked.

Fahz scarfed down another spoonful of fruit. “I skimmed it. Had a lot of boffin-speak that didn’t seem relevant, really.” 

“Did the Vasgari ever have any sort of fancy tech that could resonate like this thing?” JD asked, chewing thoughtfully on a spoonful of curry.

Tilting his head, Fahz pondered the question. “Beats me, mate. We came up with all sorts of gizmos over the years.”

“Well I’m guessing it’s something old that fell down there when the Riftworm collapsed the city. Probably had a rock fall on it last week and turn it on.” JD shrugged. “Mining equipment or something.”

“Mining equipment?” Kait repeated, her voice laced with incredulous doubt. “That’s the best you can come up with?”

“What?” JD shot her a puzzled look. “Beyond my pay grade.”

“Okay, but what about the magnetic interference? The radio signals?” She asked.

JD shrugged again. “Mining equipment.”

“Seriously? You think decades-old mining equipment can do this?” Kait held up her small COG-issue survival compass so they could see the needle spin around and around. 

“Uh, fancy mining equipment?” The science-based stuff really wasn’t JD’s specialty. That had always been Del’s focus, and since his death Delta’s collective IQ had dropped several points. Fahz’s addition to the ranks hadn’t helped either.

“You don’t even get points for creativity with that guess.”

“Like I said: beyond my pay grade.” 

Kait shook her head, that familiar exasperated look on her face.

A minute later, Cole and Marcus appeared from behind the Grindlift rig. Cole had a grin that was noticeably wider than usual, and his eyes were a little glazed. Marcus looked much more sober, though there was a bit more colour to his face.

“You guys had fun,” Kait observed as Cole flopped down into the dirt beside their fire. 

“Paduk knows how to throw a welcome party for old friends!” The big man exclaimed, laughing a little to himself.

“Let me guess, vodka?” JD asked, gripping Cole’s shoulder when he teetered a little too far off to one side.

“Bottle of old Dushin tequila.” Marcus said gruffly, taking a seat on a worn ammo crate. 

JD had never known his father to be much of a drinker, but he knew Marcus would have a glass of whiskey from time to time. Cole, on the other hand, had never given up the partying behaviour of his younger days. If anything, the old thrashball player had an even larger zest for life and celebration, having lived for years thinking each day might have been his last and eager to make every moment count.

Fahz let out a low whistle. “Where the hell’d he find that out here?” 

Marcus grunted dismissively. 

“Ration pack?” Kait offered up another MRE, but dropped it back to the ground when Marcus waved it off.

“What’d you guys talk about?” Finished with his beef curry, JD tore open the foil of Fahz’s forfeited chocolate bar and snapped a piece off with his teeth. Without looking, he offered the bar to Kait who reached out and broke off a piece for herself. 

“I didn’t do much talking. Cole,” Marcus motioned to the big man beside JD. “And Paduk used to be squad mates in the early days of the Locust war. Spent a few hours catching up.” He leaned back to peer behind their fire. “You got the tents set up. Good.”

“Fahz is taking first watch if you want to crash.” JD offered. He still had his hand on Cole’s shoulder and looked down at him. “You should definitely hit the hay if you’re running the rig tomorrow.”

“Nah, baby! The Cole Train’s just getting started!” Before anyone could stop him, Cole had pushed to his feet and started wandering off back the way they came. “Hey Paduk! Where’s that second bottle you promised?” 

Marcus sighed heavily, then rose to follow. “Wake me when it’s my shift. I’ll take Cole’s too. He’s gonna need the sleep.” He walked briskly after Cole and managed to corral him towards his small tent.

JD could hear his uncle protesting, but after a few minutes and some complaints, Cole had settled and gone quiet. There were a few moments of rustling as Marcus found his own tent, then the crackling fire and distant crickets became the only sounds.

They sat around the fire for a while, chatting about nothing and everything in the way that off-duty Gears did. JD took some time to clean his Lancer and Boltok, doing it mostly by feel in the harsh shadows cast by the fire. He liked having the new grenade launcher attachment on his rifle, not only because it was an extremely effective weapon in combat, but also because it was much easier to clean than the chainsaw bayonet. 

Despite the heat radiating off their fire, his hands grew cold and stiff and his breath was forming small clouds of vapour. The previous night with his ill stomach had left him running on only a few hours of sleep and it was rapidly catching up to him.

“Alright, I’m gonna head in.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, toward the military-green tent he’d set up for himself. JD yawned as he stood and caught Kait immediately yawning after him, his exhaustion evidently contagious.

“I’ll wake you at twenty-five hundred for your watch.” Fahz confirmed, giving a thumbs up. Having watch wasn’t entirely necessary given that they were well inside the nomad perimeter, but it was uncertain if they could trust their hosts given their often vocal hatred for the COG. They couldn’t risk going to sleep and waking to find their rig ransacked or stolen.

JD stifled another yawn and gave a small wave to Kait and Fahz, then crawled into his tent. He considered wrestling out of his armour, but the cold air and his stiff hands persuaded him against it. He settled for applying his medical goop to his arm and propping himself against his kit bag in a reclined position. 

Sleeping in armour was damn near impossible lying down, but it was perfectly comfortable if partially sitting up. He unzipped his sleeping bag enough that it could serve as a blanket and draped it over himself.

Through the thin tarp walls of his tent, JD could hear the rhythmic snoring of Cole a few dozen feet away. In the quiet, the steady regular sound of his uncle noisily sleeping was strangely comforting, and he felt himself lulling off to sleep in only a few minutes.

###### 

To wake him for his watch, Fahz stood at the door to JD’s tent and kicked his boot repeatedly until he woke up. Naturally, JD woke immediately upon the first kick, but Fahz kept kicking until JD shooed him away with a groggy grunt.

“Anything to report?” JD asked through a yawn as he crawled out of the tent.

“Couple’a nomads decided to get curious again with the rig, but I scared’em off. Other than that, fuck all happened.” Fahz scratched at the side of his head and looked like he was nearly ready to fall asleep on his feet.

“Okay,” JD stretched his arms wide and felt his shoulders pop. “Go get your beauty sleep.”

Fahz gave some sort of mumbled reply, too tired to equip any of his normal sarcasm, and trudged off to his small army-green tent.

JD’s watch was as uneventful as anticipated. He sat by the fire for his allotted two hours, alternating between looking up at the stars and watching the few nomads still awake putter about. 

He tried to read through Baird’s mission briefing, but his eyes kept losing their focus and he didn’t have the energy or the desire to keep up his concentration.

Eventually out of sheer boredom he activated Dave from his sleep cycle and had the bot flutter next to him while he tried to teach it to play Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Unsurprisingly, Dave was a quick learner. He could bob his small manipulators in the air and produce robot approximations of the right hand gestures. With the addition of a killer pokerface and no discernible tells, JD quickly felt discouraged when the bot beat him two out of every three rounds.

When his watch ended JD went to rouse Marcus and found his father already sitting up in his tent, rubbing his hand over his grey hair. When Marcus had taken a seat next to the fire Dave hovered to his side and immediately started another round of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The robot apparently thought he had received a new playmate.

Dave produced a Scissors gesture with his manipulator and waggled it in front of Marcus, who stared at it for a moment then looked up at JD. 

“Do I want to know?” The old man grumbled.

“Got bored and taught him to play Rock-Paper-Scissors.” JD grinned and motioned to Dave. Marcus looked as unimpressed as always and gave Dave scornful look. 

“Don’t tell Baird you’ve been messing with his tin can.” Marcus grunted, ignoring Dave’s insistent Scissors gesture. 

“Give it a shot. He’ll kick your ass.” JD left it at that and turned to head back to his tent.

###### 

Kait slapped the top of his tent to wake him in the morning, which was significantly more polite than Fahz kicking him. 

JD sat up and let his sleeping bag fall away and immediately regretted it. The air was still frigid and his breath clouded into puffs of vapour in front of his face. 

He rubbed his face with both hands and tried to ignore the cold as he prepared himself for the day. The medical salve had cooled into a thick paste that didn’t want to spread until it warmed on his skin, and JD’s cold hands didn’t help.

Eventually JD emerged from his tent and found that the outside air was even colder than inside his tent, but there was a glow on the horizon that promised the sun’s arrival. 

The group quickly tore down their tents and packed their supplies into the Grindlift rig, then each of them ate their breakfast ration bars.

Even with his heavy drinking the night before, Cole looked fresh faced and ready for the mission, all smiles and typical happy demeanour. JD was envious of his uncle’s constitution and ability sleep his alcohol away so easily.

By the time they were packed up, fed, and ready to head out the sun had risen and was casting early morning warmth on them through the broken buildings.

Paduk appeared around the side of the rig, walking up to them in his heavy, stiff soldiers gait. 

“Get aboard your machine. We are leaving in five minutes.” There was no ‘good morning’ or ‘how was your sleep’, just that unimpressed scowl on the old man’s face.

Without complaint Delta piled aboard their rig, Fahz taking up the driver’s seat again. Dave buzzed into the cab while a team of nomads prepared themselves to be Delta’s escort.

JD stood atop the the rig and watched as the nomads removed the barrier between their camp at the rest of the ruined city, then the engine growled and they moved out.


	6. Chapter 6

They had Dave providing directions, but it was the nomads who led the way. They seemed to know the way through the city, easily avoiding any streets too narrow and routing them around any roads where the debris was too high to drive over. 

The drive was as quiet and as peaceful as it had been yesterday when they had parachuted in. JD refused to let himself get used to the calm and kept scanning the buildings and gripping his Lancer tight.

With the city in shambles and whole sections having fallen into the pit created by the Riftworm, their progress slowed as they approached their destination. The rocking as the rig trundled over debris became too persistent and annoying, so the group disembarked and made the last leg of the journey on foot.

It was a posh district, full of once-beautiful stores and shops. Broken glass from display windows riddled the streets, and the red sand dunes had crept up and crawled through the front doors. Most of the stores were empty, long ago scavenged and pilfered. 

There were empty holes in the sidewalk where lamp posts had once been bolted down, but they had been removed and the metal melted down for armour and ammo and weapons after the start of the Locust war. Humanity hadn’t been able to afford leaving any scraps behind.

JD peered through the broken windows of a large department store and found the remains of a long-abandoned garden. Most of the soil had dried out and blown away, but there were desiccated remains of plants jostling in the breeze. Tools and pots lined the walls, and it had clearly been the site of a desperate attempt to grow some food for the surviving population.

“We’re coming up on our launch site.” Fahz announced over the radio, the static and incessant beeping growing louder as they got closer to the collapsed section of the city.

“Roger that.” JD responded, tearing himself away from the investigation of the nearby buildings. 

The rig rumbled around a corner and he spotted a derelict park up ahead. The city must have been beautiful and green decades ago, before the sea had drained back to flood the Locust tunnels. If he squinted JD could picture the tall lush trees and the rolling green fields. It was a shame it had all dried out and turned to ruin.

There was a stone fence lining the large park and the nomads guiding them motioned to follow them around a side street to find an entrance. JD walked with them, with the rest of Delta keeping watch behind the rig.

Behind him he heard the rig’s engine roar and turned just in time to see Fahz give the behemoth a burst of power. He watched and cringed as the rig crashed straight through the rock wall, individual boulders and sections of cemented rocks exploding outwards, leaving a wake of debris as the rig rumbled onwards. JD sighed and jogged after it. 

Fahz’s laugh cackled out from the cab as he brought the rig to a stop between two splintered tree stumps further inside the park. JD walked up to the front of the vehicle to examine the damage, then glared up at Fahz with his arms thrown out wide.

“Really? We’ve had this thing for a day and you go and crash it on purpose?!” He shouted up at the grinning maniac behind the wheel. 

The heavy bumper of the rig sat askew, the right side dangling so low it almost dragged on the ground. The front panel beneath the cab was smashed in to the point that they would have sustained significant engine damage if not for the fact that the engine was housed near the middle of the rig’s chassis.

“You’re explaining this to Baird, not me.” JD yelled irritably, bringing his Lancer stock back up against his shoulder.

“James, what’s going on?” His father’s voice burst over the radio, the background beeping louder still. JD took a few steps to spot the other members of Delta just entering the park through the hole Fahz had made in the stone wall. 

“Oh, just Fahz forgoing all intellectual thought in favour of brute force.” He grumbled, his fingers pressed to his earpiece.

“I saved us all that time looking for an alternative entrance. You’re welcome!” Fahz responded cheerily.

Dave buzzed out of the cab and let out a few joyful beeps before zipping off ahead. JD followed with the nomads, Fahz slowly rolling the Grindlift rig behind him.

The structure of the park was still present, but time had dried up all the plants and blown in sand from the beach. Fields that had once been green were now blood red dunes that flowed and crashed over stone benches. JD could make out pathways and the husks of shrubbery, and there were remains of an old fountain and playground.

Dave flew on ahead and came to a stop in front of a series of worn and broken statues, only a few mangled stumps of legs and a torso remaining. The plaques beneath the statue had been pried off, likely for melting down like the city’s lampposts. There was no way to tell who or what the statues were meant to commemorate.

There was a loud _ping_ from Dave, and JD watched the robot send a pulse downwards and into the ground. A moment later Dave buzzed excitedly.

“Looks like we’ve found our launch point. Let’s get this thing set up.” JD announced and Dave zoomed off to prepare the rig. 

Fahz climbed out of the cab as the rest of Delta caught up with them, and they watched as a large crane arm unfolded from the top of the rig and began lifting the Grindlift pods off the truck bed.

Each pod was carefully swung into place by the rig, where they attached to a mounting arm that had jutted out from the side of the big machine. There were four pods, but only two were set up and prepared for launch, one on each side of the rig. The other two pods served as backups in case of malfunction, or in the event a secondary team needed to be sent into the tunnels to support Delta.

JD approached one of the pods and the door slid open. Inside were two harnesses, one on each side of the cylinder. There was a weapon rack for storing their gear, a storage compartment, and a small control panel with what JD presumed to be communications gear.

“Hm, cosy.” Kait commented, appearing at his side to inspect the pod.

“Bloody coffins.” He heard Fahz mutter.

“Alright, you kids ready to rock?” Cole asked. The old thrashball player was going to stay topside, manning and protecting the Grindlift rig along with the nomads.

“I’m not happy about it, but I’m ready.” Fahz sighed defeatedly. All of his previous joy at crashing the rig had evaporated and he was left looking sullen and anxious.

JD reached inside the pod and yanked open the storage compartment beneath the weapon rack.

“All the gear is accounted for.”

Each pod had a store of rations, water, ammo, radio equipment, and more. It was enough to last them three days if they needed it, but JD doubted they would.

“Then let’s get down there.” Marcus said gruffly. “Fahz, you’re with me.” He jerked his head towards the other side of the rig. Fahz’s shoulders dropped and he reluctantly followed the older gear to their pod.

Detaching his Lancer and Gnasher from their magnetic mounts on his armour, JD stowed them carefully on the pod’s weapon rack. Kait passed her weapons to him and he stowed them as well.

In the confined space, securing himself into the harness while wearing his bulky armour proved to be a challenge. He pressed his back to the wall and managed to shimmy his arms through the straps, but he struggled to buckle them. 

Kait stepped into the small pod and helped, able to maneuver a little easier in the space.

“Here, turn your arm like—no, the other way.” She grunted as she pulled on the strap and tried to get it to stretch across his chest plate. “Hang on, don’t move. Wait, JD—stop!”

“I think I got it.” JD twisted, trying to get more slack from the harness. Something was tangled behind him, and he moved to look over his shoulder.

“No, you’re doing it wrong. Just—“

“Am I? Looks right to me.”

“If it was right then the two buckles would be here.” She jabbed the front of his armour.

“Says who?” He asked, studying the straps draped over his shoulders.

“Says anyone who has ever flown in a Raven before. It’s the same setup.” Kait gripped one end of a strap in her hand and tugged it. “You’ve got this whole thing tangled. Just…just don’t move for a second, okay?”

JD gave her a doubtful look but stopped fidgeting with the harness. Kait leaned forward and reached around him to grasp at the straps behind his shoulder blades. She grunted and hissed and ended up with the side of her face pressed against the metal of his chest plate.

Watching Kait’s face screw up as she fumbled with the harness, JD started to laugh.

“Stop it,” she mumbled, her words obscured from her face smooshed against his armour. 

“Here, why don’t I just take this thing off and we try again?” He chuckled.

“No, I…hah! Got it!” Kait leaned back and JD wanted to point out that she had the imprint of his armour on her face, but elected to stay silent for his own sake.

Kait yanked the straps again and that time they stretched all the way across his plates to click into place over the COG emblem.

“There!” She said triumphantly. Then she stepped backwards into her own harness and was successfully buckled up in less than ten seconds. “See, this is how you do it.” She pointed to her own untangled straps.

“No fair. You were all practiced after doing mine.”

Kait shook her head. “Can’t take you anywhere, seriously.”

“You two ready?” Cole asked, appearing in the open door. “Sounded like you had some trouble.”

“This one’s got the coordination of a toddler.” She jerked her thumb at JD, who scoffed in mock offence.

“Well, get comfortable. This ain’t gonna be pleasant.” And with a push of a button the pod door slipped shut. JD blinked in the sudden darkness.

“Bloody coffin.” Kait muttered after a moment, repeating Fahz’s words.

“Yeah. Didn’t think it would be so cramped.” The blue lights from their armour allowed him to make out Kait’s face, but just barely. It had seemed roomier before, but in the dark JD realized there was little more than a handspan between their chest plates.

A thunderous clanking noise erupted all around him and made his ears ring. Then the familiar sound of a turbine whine started up, the vibrations trembling through the walls and up through their boots.

The noise became so loud and the vibrations so strong that JD couldn’t clench his jaw without feeling and hearing his teeth rattling in his skull. 

“I don’t like this!” Kait yelled, barely audible. She had her shoulder straps in a death grip, her face scrunched up and her eyes clamped shut.

JD wanted to yell something comforting back to her, but the engine whine got louder still and his voice was overwhelmed. Instead, he let go of one of his straps and reached out to grab her hand. Kait’s face stayed screwed up, but she grasped his hand eagerly, clutching it painfully tight.

“This is _fucking insane!_ ” He heard Fahz yell over the radio, all anger and desperate fear.

“Hang on tight!” Cole’s bright voice blasted in his ear. “Launching in three…two…one…”

JD’s hand clenched tight on Kait’s as they suddenly lurched downwards, a choked cry escaping through his gritted teeth.


	7. Chapter 7

“I don’t like this!” Kait was yelling. The lights of their armour illuminated her face enough that he could see her mouth form the words, but there was so much noise he couldn’t hear her.

The drilling of the Grindlift as it plummeted through the sand and stone and dirt was probably the loudest thing he would ever endure. Even that failing mining elevator down into the Swarm nest hadn’t been this loud.

The rattling of the machine had him vibrating inside his armour and he could feel his skin rub and chafe through the constant shaking. His hands seemed to have gone numb long ago from the strain of holding on to the harness, and there was the hot burn of overworked muscles radiating up his arms. 

He’d been holding Kait’s hand for the first few seconds of their thunderous decent, then they’d both let go at the same moment to clutch at their own harnesses and hold on for their lives.

JD could feel the Grindlift pod drill its way through the earth at an impressive speed, and there were brief moments of terrifying weightlessness as they crashed through into open air before slamming and drilling through rock again. During those fleeting half-seconds the noise inside the pod dropped enough that he could hear the sharp panicked breaths of Kait and himself and then the deafening drilling would take over again. In the faintest regions of his terrified mind he realized they must have been breaking and falling through some of the shallower tunnels left by the Locust, then burrowing deeper.

At some point he’d clenched his eyes shut, not that it made any difference. Even with his eyes open there wasn’t much to see, but at least with them slammed shut he wasn’t focused on trying to find and focus on some invisible horizon to steady himself with. 

Another moment of gut-wrenching freefall pushed him upwards in his harness and he heard the drill whine with uninhibited speed, and then there was bone-jarring crash and his knees buckled as his full weight and momentum hammered downwards, straining the straps. 

It took far too long for JD realize that they weren’t tunnelling anymore, and his ears rang shrilly as the Grindlift engine began winding down. It was at that moment he heard his voice yelling through his grinding teeth. He cut the sound off with a hoarse cough and felt his throat ache. 

With effort he forced his face to relax and his eyes opened enough to squint in the darkness of the pod. Their armour was still illuminating the space, and JD could see that Kait was no better off than he was after their horrifying ride. Kait’s eyes were screwed shut and she was panting and quaking in her harness, and JD swore he could hear the faintest sound of a whimper on the ends of each breath.

“Is…is that it?” JD asked with a weak voice after several seconds had ticked by. He tried to loosen his hands and found his muscles cramped tight, and it took real focus and effort to straighten his fingers and let go of the harness. The stitching and weave of the strap fabric were imprinted clearly on his palms, his knuckles still white from the strain. He shook his hands a few times to help ease the burning pain in his tendons.

His radio buzzed and there was a cough in his ear, then his father’s voice. “James? You two alright?” Marcus sounded a little shaken, but significantly steadier than JD did.

JD swallowed and took a breath to calm himself, then to Kait he said, “You good?” 

Kait still seemed to be struggling to find her voice, but managed to give a trembling OK sign with her hand.

It took a few trembling seconds for his fingers to find his ear piece, then he managed a weak “Y-yeah.” Then after swallowing JD pressed his ear piece again. “Yeah, we’re in one piece.” 

He almost reached up and pulled on the door release, then his sense kicked in and he unbuckled his harness instead. JD pulled his rifle from the weapon’s rack and awkwardly tried to shift to face the door in the tiny space, inadvertently pinning Kait back against the wall. She didn’t complain though, and moved herself to be as far out of the way as possible.

With his rifle held ready, JD yanked the release and aimed into the darkness as the door whisked aside. The world beyond was an inky black that absorbed any light their armour cast into it. There were a few silent seconds as JD moved his rifle back and forth, his ears straining to hear anything. His ears were ring incessantly, like a hundred shrill bugs sitting and singing on his shoulders. When no threat appeared, he stepped out of the pod.

“Clear.” He hissed back to Kait, who undid her harness and lifted her rifle from the rack.

His eyes adjusted to the darkness and he scanned around, immediately looking for an escape route like he had been trained. If they got ambushed down here, they needed to know where the exits were. Not that escape was a hugely viable option when they’d just drilled what felt like a hundred kilometres down into Sera’s crust.

They’d landed inside a tunnel, perhaps five metres in diameter. It curved downwards and away about fifty metres ahead. JD had never been in a Locust tunnel before, but he’d seen plenty of pictures and videos of them during his days at the academy. They all looked the same, so far as he could tell: rough hewn walls, worn floors from the marching of thousands of grubs, cracks and indentations where Corpsers had impaled their big legs to move up and down. This tunnel looked a little smoother perhaps, but definitely looked like a Locust tunnel.

The air was warm and humid, and smelled of wet soil and metallic rot. It wasn’t an unexpected smell considering where they were, and despite the dank conditions he found the scent to be rather pleasant. It brought back memories of digging in the garden with his mother, planting flowers and shrubs and potatoes. JD took a deep breath and turned back to the pods.

Ten metres away Marcus stood outside his own pod and JD could hear a hushed torrent of curses coming from Fahz as he stepped out. Dave zipped out of the pod a moment later, looking no worse for wear.

“I am never, _fucking ever_ , doing that again!” Fahz stammered out, stumbling with unsteady legs as he tried to walk in their direction.

“Woah.” Kait said as she stepped up beside JD, and JD followed her gaze upwards. 

He’d been so focused on an escape route and thinking back on old memories that he had failed to notice the growing light in the cavern. In several areas the surfaces of the tunnel were shimmering and glowing, casting a soft blue light that was bright enough to see by. It was like an abnormally bright starry night, and it appeared to run throughout the cave.

As he moved closer to the wall, JD noticed that the glow was being emitted by clusters of small spotted growths that clung to the damp rock. It reminded him a little of the green fuzzy moss that covered the damp sides of the trees back home.

Kait reached out and poked one of the glowing clumps with her rifle muzzle and JD watched as the the blue material caved piteously under the slight amount of pressure.

Marcus appeared along side and tore a small piece of the organism off the wall and examined it. It kept glowing even as it crumpled in his gloved fingers, and he let it fall to the ground.

“Fungus.” He grunted. “Bioluminescent.”

“You think it’s dangerous?” JD asked after a moment, eyeing the illuminated ceiling overhead. “Spores or something?” 

They’d packed air filtration masks in the storage compartments of their pods, but they’d already been breathing the air for a couple minutes. JD kicked himself for not thinking of the hazard before exiting the Grindlift pod.

Dave beeped above them and extended a manipulator to prod a section of fungus. There was a moment of whirring from the bot, then a joyful beep.

Fahz joined them, still looking shaken after their descent, and held up his forearm for the others to see. He had Dave’s control screen strapped to his arm.

“Little man says it’s all good. No toxins or venom or any of that.”

“What’s it say about air quality?” Kait asked, clearly on the same thought path as JD.

Fahz looked down at the illuminated panel and tapped at it with a finger. Then he extended his arm for them to see again and shrugged. 

“Looks okay to me.” 

JD leaned in and read the readouts. “Carbon dioxide’s a little higher than normal, but good oxygen levels. Some dust, bit of mould, but nothing dangerous. Yeah, I think we’re good.” Then as an extra thought he looked up at the bot. “Thanks Dave.”

“You ever see anything like this before, Marcus?” Kait turned to the old Gear. Marcus gazed around the tunnel and shook his head.

“No.” He murmured, looking around their surroundings. “This is new.”

“Well as much as I’d like to hang around and take samples and ooh and aah over the pretty rocks, can we please get this whole thing over with?” Fahz asked, staring up at the stone overhead with clear apprehension.

“Right,” JD said as he walked back to the pod, giving the other man a knock with his shoulder as he moved passed him. “Forgot about Fahz’s little fear of enclosed spaces.”

“It’s not little, and it’s not the enclosed space I’m worried about. It’s the few thousand tons of rock crushing the life from our teensy bodies.” Fahz pressed his thumb and forefinger together like he was suddenly and violently squishing a small bug.

They unloaded their gear from the pods and strapped the kit bags to their backs. It was a lot of equipment, but they had to be ready for a variety of situations and there were no airdrops for extra supplies or support. If they didn’t have all the necessary tools to navigate it was likely they’d be forced to return to Baird empty handed.

JD shot Fahz a look and jerked his chin at Dave’s control panel on his arm. The map glowed beneath the blue fungal light and he could see how the tunnels spread out to create a complex web.

Fahz tapped the screen and the map zoomed out to show their destination flashing in red, with their current location in green. A plotted route was illuminated in blue and JD frowned at the way it zigzagged its way through the myriad of passages, avoiding dead ends and cave-ins.

“That’s gonna be a long hike.” He said quietly. “Alright Dave, you lead the way.”

Dave gave a confirming beep and set off at a comfortable walking pace. The bot shone his light about to help them with their footing, but the luminescent fungus on the walls was often bright enough they could see without the added light.

The initial section of the tunnel—the part they had landed in—was fairly smooth and easy to traverse. As they moved on, the passage narrowed and branched. Dave didn’t pause and floated off to the left.

JD thought the desolated city above had been quiet but he had no idea just how noisy it was compared to the stillness beneath. There were so many sounds you could ignore, like the breeze or rustling grass or scurrying rats. In the darkness of the tunnel, there was absolutely _nothing_ making noise. 

The sound of their boots hitting the loose stone sent echoes rattling down the passageway. JD swore he could hear his father’s slow steady breaths from ten metres away and every crinkle and flex of Kait’s clothing. Even Dave’s near-silent thrumming sounded like a thundering Raven’s engine.

They walked on for a long time without speaking much, following Dave as he led them through junctions and forks in the tunnel network. 

As they crossed a large tunnel—some sort of main underground highway—Marcus paused and looked at the dirt. He reached to his belt and withdrew a flashlight and clicked it on, pointing it at the ground.

“What is it?” JD asked.

“Footprints.” Marcus said after a moment, casting the beam around his boots, then down the tunnel. Frowning, JD walked over to see for himself.

Sure enough, there were faded footprints leading up the incline of the tunnel. Marcus moved the beam and JD spotted a second and third set. Then a fourth and fifth. 

It took him a moment to step back and get a proper look, and once he had JD felt hard dread settle in the pit of his stomach.

There were _hundreds_ of prints. An army’s worth.

“That’s…not good.” JD uttered.

“That’s a lot of Swarm.” Fahz added, sounding equally as disturbed.

Kait had her own flashlight in her hand and dropped to one knee. She ran her fingers over the dirt and traced the outline of the footprint.

“I don’t think these were Swarm.” She said a few seconds later. “Look at this, the print’s all wrong.” Kait ran her fingers over the outer edge of the footprint. “It’s too big, too broad. Swarm drone prints are narrower along the heel, and they leave more distinct talon marks.” She tapped one end of the footprint. “And there’re too many toes.”

JD had gone hunting with Kait in the woods surrounding her Outsider village, and while he had never seen her do much tracking, she had amazing survival skills. To him the footprint didn’t look like much other than a potato-shaped imprint in the dirt, but he knew better than to doubt Kait’s abilities.

“When did you have the chance to study Swarm footprints?” JD asked, squatting down beside her.

“Oh about three minutes after they attacked Fort Umson.” Kait said casually. “I can also tell the different between mouse and shrew tracks, not to mention turkey and pheasant tracks.”

“You’ll have to teach me sometime.” He said absently, still focusing on the sheer number of footprints laid out before them. “If they’re not Swarm, then what are they?”

“Locust.” Marcus said slowly. He was still staring down at the ground with his flashlight. “They’re Locust footprints.”

“You’re telling me there’re Locust down here?” Fahz’s voice took on an angry, incredulous lilt.

“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Kait brushed her hand over another footprint, clearing away loose sand and dirt. “These prints are ancient.”

“You’re sure?” It was a knee-jerk question, out of his mouth before JD had even registered the thought. JD knew Kait wouldn’t put forward an assessment like that without full confidence in its certainty. He leaned closer and his shoulder plates knocked against hers as he stared down at the spotlight from her flashlight.

Kait rapped her knuckles on the ground. “It was muddy when they went walking through here, but it dried out a long time ago. This is basically concrete now.”

To demonstrate her point, Kait drew her combat knife and attempted to chisel the edge of the footprint. There was a sharp metallic _tink tink_ as the knife failed to chip away the dirt. 

JD touched a footprint with the fingertips of his newly healed hand and felt how hard and unyielding the soil was. He wanted to try scratching at it with his thumbnail to affirm its hardness, but he remembered belatedly that his fingernails hadn’t fully regrown yet. JD adjusted his weight and reached down with his left, uninjured hand and raked his fingers over the ground. It was like touching a piece of sandstone, solid and rough. 

Kait stood and shone her light around, scanning the footprints carefully. She walked across the tunnel and back again, scrutinizing every line and imprint on the ground. 

With a click, she extinguished her flashlight and gave a sure nod. “Nothing’s recent. The Locust were here, but I bet it was back before the end of the war.” Then she craned her head back and looked up at the glowing fungus over head. “We’re probably the first living things down here in over twenty-five years.”

“And you’re sure about that?” Fahz asked warily. 

“If I’m wrong and we run into a Locust army down here, then I promise you can lord it over me for the rest of my life.” 

Fahz snorted. “If we run into a Locust army, the lording will only last about ten seconds because then we’ll all be dead.”

“Then I won’t have to suffer your gloating for long.” Kait shot Fahz a dry, flat smile before walking in Dave’s direction.


	8. Chapter 8

They marched on, each of them keeping their guard up in case Kait’s assessment of the footprints had been wrong. They found a few more sets of tracks as they walked through the tunnels, each as old than the last. Despite there being no apparent threat, the talon marks in the solidified mud were incredibly unnerving.

Leading the pack behind Dave, Fahz had his Lancer in his hands and his tilted upwards to stare warily at the crackled and crumbled roof. When his foot failed to find the steady even ground and instead dropped down about six inches, he let out a strangled sound and stumbled in the dark. JD pulled out his flashlight and shone it into the shallow hole Fahz had fallen into.

“ _Fuck me_ ,” Fahz muttered as he spun around to stare down at the Brumak print he had landed in. “That’s a big one…” He scrambled out, looking more than a little disturbed. "This place is one giant nightmare." He mumbled, bringing his Lancer back up to bear.

With the help of Dave’s spotlight, they avoided the other Brumak prints and continued their way through the tunnels.

Eventually the path became narrower and more challenging. What had been gradual inclines and smooth dirt tunnels became steep climbs and drops with loose boulders and shattered rock.

JD scrambled on all fours as he tried to climb up a mostly blocked cavern to reach the narrow gap at the top. What had once been a thoroughfare large enough for three Brumaks abreast had caved in years ago, leaving only a small gap at the top that barely looked large enough for an armoured human to squeeze through.

As he pushed himself upwards the stones beneath JD's left boot shifted and tumbled away, making his foot slide out from beneath him. He fell flat on his chest plate and grunted, kicking his legs to find purchase. His fingers burned and his muscles strained as he tried to hang on and stop himself from sliding back down the small mountain.

“You having fun, Fenix?” Fahz shouted up at him from where he stood with Kait and Marcus at the bottom of the cave-in. JD could hear the smug grin in Fahz’s voice and he gritted his teeth in frustration.

“Oh loads.” JD he hissed out, swinging his right boot out and jamming the toe in a gap between two sizeable rocks. When he was confident he could put his weight on the foot he leveraged himself up and got his other leg under him again. A bit more scrambling and he managed to climb the top of the pile but had to duck before his head hit the ceiling. 

Dave floated up to hover beside him and peered into the narrow gap. As JD unslung his pack and unhooked the coil of rope from its side, Dave disappeared into the passageway and left only the faint glow of his thruster and optics reflecting off the stone. After JD had tied the rope off to a large jutting shard of rock in the wall, he tossed it down so the others could haul themselves up.

“I’m getting too old for this.” Marcus muttered when JD offered him a hand to help pull him the rest of the way up.

“Hey, you’re the one who’s still letting Baird talk you into these expeditions of his.” JD said with a smirk, earning a grunt from his father.

After Kait and Fahz had joined them, JD coiled the rope up again and led them through the slim gap at the top to the next section, following the chirps and beeps from Dave ahead.

“This. Is. Fucking. Terrible.” Fahz snarled, grunting out each word with a shuffling sideways step as he squeezed between the stones. JD turned in time to see the man let out a pained groan and tilt his head back so the fungus-covered rock face wouldn’t press into his cheek. 

JD felt a brief moment of sympathy for Fahz and his claustrophobia. A baser animal instinct chewed at the back of his mind, telling him this horribly small and tight space was indeed truly terrifying. He took a quiet steadying breath and after a few seconds he managed to quash the feeling down and instead focused on the delight of Fahz’s discomfort. 

When the tight passage opened up again they found themselves at the other side of the mountainous cave-in. JD led the group down the rock pile, hopping on the largest boulders first then sliding down the loose gravel on his heels to skid to a halt on the stone floor.

“Let’s never do that again, shall we?” Fahz said after they had all made it to the bottom.

“Just remember,” JD grinned. “Finding this thing is only half the mission. We have to haul it out of here, which means going back the way came.” He pointed up at the narrow gap atop the pile of rocks.

“Aw bloody hell.” Fahz’s shoulders drooped, looking stricken.

“What’s our map say? Please tell me we’re getting close.” Kait asked, sweat glistening on her brow. While it wasn't hot in the caves, it was warmer than JD had expected. He wondered if they would need to convert to their desert armour configuration if it grew any warmer.

“We’re about…” Fahz tilted his head to one side as he looked at the panel on his arm. “Half way?” He offered his arm to Kait so she could read the map for herself.

“Why the hell’d we give you that thing if you can’t even read it?” JD asked, motioning to Dave’s panel strapped to Fahz’s arm.

“I can read it.” Fahz said indignantly. “You think it’s easy reading a map that looks like a plate of noodles? Have at it, then.” He moved to undo the straps holding the console to his arm, but JD waved him off with a chuckle and a small roll of the eyes.

Kait tapped at the screen on Fahz’s arm—ignoring their banter—and zoomed in on the map and the path ahead.

“Looks like we’re coming up on some big caverns. Hopefully things get a little easier after this.” She said, pointing to bulbous cave outlines on the map.

Fahz stared down at the map for a moment, unmoving as the others continued on.

Then, jogging to catch up, he asked, “Are we gonna stop for a snack at some point?” Fahz asked innocently, looking at each of them in turn. “I’m fuckin’ famished.”

“Oh my god.” Kait muttered under her breath, shooting the glowing ceiling an exasperated look.

The break was short but surprisingly needed. JD was hungrier than he thought, scarfing down a COG-issued energy bar in less than a minute. He swallowed a few lukewarm gulps from his canteen and sighed, his hunger momentarily satiated.

The others looked as though they had needed the break as well. Kait sat on the ground, not minding the damp stone, and Marcus was eating his own energy bar while remaining vigilant, his eyes scanning the pathway ahead. JD doubted his father would ever be truly relaxed, even when no enemies were present.

Fahz disappeared behind a large tumbled boulder to ‘have a whizzle’, and Kait shot him a snarl of disgust. Dave followed along, apparently out of curiosity or protectiveness—JD had no idea which but hoped it was the latter—but quickly jetted away when Fahz threatened to douse him.

“I hope you washed your hands,” Kait said, eyeing Fahz as he returned to the group. 

“You want me to put the toilet seat down too, love?” He asked, all false sweetness. But he humoured her and spritzed his hands with a spray sterilizing solution from a pouch on his belt. “Just for you, princess.” 

They moved on, a little rejuvenated after their short rest. The rough terrain didn’t seem so challenging now that he wasn’t hungry, JD decided. And Fahz’s antagonizing remarks weren’t nearly as irritating. 

Sections of the cave walls ahead had crumpled with age and the lack of maintenance. Rocks and earth had come loose and gradually slid down to pile along one side of the tunnel, and the group pressed themselves to the opposite wall to skirt around the debris.

"Is it just me, or does anyone else see that light?" Marcus asked from behind JD, who had been focused on where his feet were going rather than the tunnel ahead.

JD looked up and saw the glow in the curving tunnel, a soft blue light brighter than the bioluminescent fungus currently lighting their path. Dave saw it too and immediately zoomed off to scout it out, fading away around the corner.

“Wow…” Kait breathed as they followed and the source of the light came into view.

The tunnel expanded abruptly and they stopped to stand at its mouth and stare up into the cavern ahead of them. It was a space longer and wider than a thrashball field, and taller than any stadium JD had ever seen in person or in photographs.

Massive stone spikes hung from the ceiling like gargantuan icicles, each one emitting a near-florescent bright blue. It was like looking at massive beautiful chandelier, glimmering and suspended above them. Smaller inverted spikes rose from the floor to meet their brethren, their tips glowing but becoming gradually dimmer toward their bases.

Even Marcus seemed intrigued by the display, his head craned back to stare at a smaller stone spear that dangled above them.

"More of that fungus?" Fahz asked, the light reflecting off his glasses. He had long ago traded out his usual tinted pair for faintly pink set of lens so he could still see in the dark.

Dave was the only one not completely stunned by the sight and he rose to take a sample off the tip of the glowing spear Marcus had been staring up at. Then he fluttered to its matching mate near the ground and used his manipulator to take another sample.

It was only when Dave beeped and Fahz's arm panel flashed that JD tore his eyes away. He reached out and grabbed the man's arm and turned it so he could read the display, Fahz putting up no protest as he kept his eyes on the ceiling.

"Same fungus, just greater quantities." He said to the group before letting Fahz's arm drop away.

"Who would ever have known this was down here?" Kait uttered. She was transfixed by the sight, the blue light bright enough to see the small smile on her face. “We’ve got to be the first people to see this."

"Take lots of pictures, Dave. Baird'll love it." JD said to the bot, who gave a short buzz and flew upwards to circle around and fly between the dangling spikes.

“At least when the ceiling caves in on us and one of these stalagmites falls and horribly impales me, my death will be _pretty_.” Fahz said, only half sarcastic.

“Stalactite.” Marcus grunted and Fahz gave him a confused look. “Stalactites are the ones that hang down. Stalagmites grow up from the floor.” He pointed with two fingers to the peak rising from the ground. “And if I was a betting man, I'd say the fungus grows brighter on the stalactites because it's feeding on the nutrients in the water dripping down."

“You learn that in your COG biology class at the academy?” Fahz asked with a snorted laugh. Marcus fixed him with one of his steady looks.

“My mother was a biologist. She used to do research in the Hollow before the war. I picked up a few things.” The old man said in passing, and it surprised JD to hear his father talk about his grandmother; it was topic rarely brought up. 

"You've never really talked about her." He said quietly to his father. Marcus glanced at him for a moment, then heaved one shoulder in a shrug.

"Not much to tell. Nothing you can't look up yourself." Marcus said, walking past him and toward the bed of stalagmites.

"Sure," JD conceded as he followed. "Doesn't mean I don't want to hear _you_ talk about her though. Or my grandfather, for that matter."

Marcus appeared to consider that, then he shook his head. "Later. We've got a job to do."

JD made a mental note to follow up with his father on that promise. Anya had always shared stories from her childhood before the Locust War, about her heroic mother, Major Helena Stroud. But Marcus had almost never talked about his parents. JD knew the basics: Adam had been the key physicist behind the Hammer of Dawn and the Imulsion Countermeasure, and Elain had been a biologist of some renown. Anything beyond that—what they had been like as parents, what Marcus’s childhood had been like growing up as part of one of the rich founding families—was a mystery to JD. And as time went on and his relationship with his father steadied and became less tumultuous than before, JD's curiosity about the Fenix ancestral line grew.

The stalagmites rose from the floor to form a forest of stone trees. They walked through them along an old worn path, presumably left by the Locust years before. Some of the stone pillars were five or more metres tall and had grand sloping bases. 

Everything was damp and the stone was slick from dripping water. The air felt thick and rich with stale rot, likely unstirred for decades.

One of the largest stalactites had fallen from the ceiling, broken off by its own immense weight. It laid across their path, cracked and glowing from all the fungus.

JD braced his back against the stone barrier and weaved his fingers together to provide a step. Without a word Fahz placed his boot in his hands and JD boosted him up. Kait was next, followed by Marcus.

JD straightened up and turned to take a few steps back from the stalactite. Then with a running start he leaped up and grasped Fahz’s arm. When he tried to put his boot on the wall to help his climb, the treads smeared through the blue fungus and provided no grip, quickly sliding out from under him. He grunted as he was slammed against the stone and glowing vegetation plastered the front of his armour.

Kait reached down and grabbed at JD’s other arm and between her and Fahz they pulled him up.

“How is it, every time we find something glowing, you always manage to cover yourself with it?” Kait said, gesturing to the blue spattering on his chest plate. It was nearly the same colour and brightness as the indicator lights on their armour.

“You know, I keep asking myself the same thing.” JD smiled and shook his head as they hopped down the other side of the broken stalactite. He used the side of his palm to wipe the fungus from his chest plate, then paused to look at the residue on his hand. “And we’re _sure_ this isn’t poisonous?” 

“Dave says it’s okay, so it’s okay.” Kait shrugged. She watched as he sniffed the blue goo curiously. “What’s it smell like?”

JD pondered the smear of mushroom on his hand again, and gave it another sniff. “It smells like…” He sniffed again. “I dunno, like a mushroom?” Pulling his hand away, JD studied the glowing fungus. “I wonder if it’s edible.” He mused, wiping his hand off on his pants and leaving a glowing blue patch behind.

Fahz leaned down and scooped up a fist-sized stone speckled with the fungus and offered it to JD. “Go on then, give it a lick. For science.”

JD took the rock and studied it for a moment, looking as though he was actually considering tasting it. 

“I’ll give you all my rations to _not_ eat the glowing mushrooms, okay?” Kait said as she reached out and grabbed the stone in JD’s hand. She tossed it away before he could protest, and the clattering sound echoed around the cavern.

“If I’m the first one to try eating a new species of fungus, you think they’ll name it after me?” He asked, smirking at Kait and her look of disgust.

“Can we please get back to the task at hand? You can eat all the glowing mushrooms you want _after_ we’ve finished this damned mission. ” Marcus interjected gruffly, glaring at the group. JD put on his best shit eating grin, feeling the particular sparkle of amusement that only came from annoying his father. The old man gave a hoarse sigh and turned away to follow Dave, ignoring the prattling of the younger Gears.


	9. Chapter 9

The forest of stalagmites thinned out gradually, the stone spears growing shorter as they neared the end of the cavern. The ceiling sloped downwards, narrowing the chamber until it was a thin tunnel stretching off into the darkness.

The brightness of the cavern behind them, JD found it harder to see in the dark and squinted uselessly as his eyes adjusted. He contemplated pulling out his flashlight, but considered it better to simply let himself adapt to the dark again.

The tunnel was barely wide enough for two of them to walk side by side, but it was less winding than some of the previous passages. Dave floated on ahead, and JD could see the shift of his spotlight and the small movements of his optics as he scanned their surroundings.

A hundred or so metres in and the tunnel opened up into another cavern, this one far less grand and opulent than the previous. The fungus was ever present, speckling the ceiling with glinting dots of blue light, but it provided the only point of interest in the space. 

Without anything worth examining or noting in the cavern, the group walked through it quickly and followed the next passageway.

They had marched several hundred more metres through slick sloping stone pathways when Marcus stopped suddenly, his eyes on the ground. JD stopped too and looked down, expecting to see more footprints and tracks in the stone.

When he didn’t see anything but rock, he raised an eyebrow at his father. “What is it?” He asked, seeing that Kait and Fahz had stopped further down the path to wait for them.

“You feel that?” Marcus murmured, his fingers tightening on his Lancer.

JD waiting for a moment, trying to sense whatever it was his father had detected. “Feel what?” He said finally, shrugging.

“Vibration in the rock.” The old Gear’s voice was quiet but clenched, and he stared up the dark tunnel, then down the way they had come.

JD held very still for a few seconds and concentrated on ground beneath him. He remembered his uncles telling him stories about Locust emergence holes and how they’d learned to feel the grubs tunnelling underground right before they burst through the surface. JD had always been curious what that would have felt like, but grateful he never had to experience it.

It took a few moments, then he could feel the very slight tremble in his heels and the balls of his feet. The vibration was so slight that he never would have noticed it if his father hadn’t mentioned it. Any movement and he would lose the sensation until he held still again, and it amazed him that Marcus had been able to feel it while marching.

“Yeah, I feel it.” JD gave his father a grim look, seeing the scowling wariness in the old man’s eyes. 

With his newly healed arm, JD reached out and placed his palm on the tunnel wall. The vibration was more apparent against the thinner skin and brand new nerve endings of his hand, and it almost felt as though the stone was pulsing beneath his touch.

“Well that’s unnerving.” He muttered, pulling his hand away with a grimace. “You think it’s Baird’s mystery seismic activity?”

“Let’s hope so, otherwise we’re in trouble.” Marcus said, walking onwards. “Everybody stay sharp.”

Fahz and Kait were waiting as JD and Marcus caught up, and Fahz had his hand on the wall like JD had. He cringed, his teeth baring in a moment genuine fear. JD didn’t comment when he noticed how much the other man’s fingers trembled when he pulled them off the stone. The raw fright on Fahz’s face suddenly seemed a lot less funny than it had before.

Fahz appeared to sense that JD had noticed his expression and he looked down at the ground, one hand coming up to push the glasses up his nose and partially obscure his face until he regained his composure.

“Come on, let’s keep moving.” Kait jerked her head toward Dave. “The map said there were three big caverns, all in a row. We’ve passed through two of them, so we’ve got to be getting close.”

They carried on, each of them keeping their rifles clutched to their chest plates. It was still incredibly quiet in the tunnel, which was the only reassuring factor they had going for them. No matter how sneaky, there was no way anyone could move around in total silence of the caves and not be detected.

The passage kept rolling on ahead of them, seemingly never ending. JD found it hard to judge distance inside the tunnels without any points of reference, but he guessed it was another kilometre or more before the way ahead started to widen again.

He paused briefly to reach out and touch the wall, and felt the vibrating pulse from before. It felt stronger against his palm, and he didn’t have to hold perfect still to feel the tremor rise up through his boots anymore.

“We’ve got to be getting close.” JD said as he pulled his hand away, noting that Marcus was looking at the ground again, his index finger twitching as he held it over the trigger guard on his Lancer.

The tunnel kept widening as they went on, the walls rising higher and growing farther apart. Then, seemingly suddenly, the passage yawned open into another massive cavern, this one as big as the first.

More massive stalactites shone with fungus, dangling down and dripping with water. A few had hung down so far that their tips had met those of the stalagmites rising to meet them. Together, the two spears formed long slender hourglass pillars that glowed brightly in the dark.

Instead of the echoing silence they had been engulfed in for the last several hours, the cavern was filled with a soft steady hum. It sounded like the low faint rumbling of a distant engine, purring somewhere far away.

“Am I the only one seeing that?” Fahz asked, taking a few steps to the right to peer around a stalagmite in his way.

JD followed the Gear’s gaze and stared toward the far end of the cavern, where the stone wall had cracked and fallen away, exposing something smooth and glossy in the light of the fungus. He took the same few steps Fahz had, tilting his head as his brain tried to make sense of the image before him.

“Is that metal?” Marcus asked, seeing it too. 

Together they walked toward the other end of the cave, the worn path taking them around the outer edge of the space rather than through the stalagmites this time.

Part of the huge cavern had collapsed and rubble had poured over the stone pillars and spears. Luminescent tips poked out of the dirt, blotchy where the fungus had rubbed or broken away when it had been battered by the falling rocks.

The cave-in look fairly recent, JD guessed. There was newly settled dust over most surfaces, and he could see where the dust had mixed with water to form rivulets of mud. He ran his fingertips over a nearby stalagmite and noted how a layer of dirt came off without any effort.

It had been the cave-in that had collapsed the the rear wall of the cave, revealing the metal surface behind it.

Dave was actively scanning the metal surface, starting at the base and floating his way upwards. He beeped excitedly, and JD saw Fahz glance at the control panel on his arm.

“This is thing we’re looking for.” Fahz said, dropping his arm and gripping his Lancer again. The more he looked at the ruined section of the cavern, the harder his fingers clutched the rifle, and JD suspected Fahz felt safer when he had it in his hands. Like a child and its safety blanket.

JD stared up at the pile of rubble and the exposed metal wall. “So what the hell is it?” He asked the group, knowing full well he wasn’t going to get an answer.

“You’ve got me.” Kait said. Then she climbed up over the few feet of loose boulders and rested a hand on the glossy surface. “It’s definitely the source of that vibration though.”

“Great. So we’ve found it.” Fahz grunted. “Now what? It’s a bit too big to take back to Baird, don’t you think?”

“I think we can get inside it,” Marcus pointed up the slope of rubble. “There.”

There was a section of the metal wall that was punctured open, a dark jagged round aperture glimmering with moisture. To JD’s eye, the opening looked like an oversized bullet hole, perhaps only a few feet wide and maybe too small for them to squeeze through in full combat armour.

Dave had spotted it too, and he made beeline for the opening. Before anyone could stop him, the bot had pulled in his arms and tucked them away, then jetted through the hole. There was a brief flash of sparks and a loud scraping noise as Dave’s casing made contact with the edge of the opening, and then he was gone.

They all stood still and quiet for a moment, waiting for the little bot to return. Fahz stared down at the control panel again, and they all jumped in surprise when they heard the loud ping of Dave’s pulse function.

A series of happy beeps radiated out from the whole, and Fahz shook his head in disbelief.

“Little man’s found a way through. There’s a passage on the other side.” He said, enthusiasm completely void from his voice.

“Then in we go.” JD confirmed with a nod. He slung his rifle along his side—his rucksack was strapped to his armoured back—and began climbing up the loose dirt and stones.

To avoid slipping, he rammed his steel-toed boots hard into the soil. The toes jammed in and managed to find solid grip, allowing him to essentially create his own set of stairs up the side of the cave-in. As he passed Kait, she moved to follow him, jamming her own boots into the footholds he left behind. 

It took some time and lots of pauses to ensure he had he decent footing in the crumbling stone and earth, but JD made it to the small opening. Gripped the lowest edge of the jagged metal and pulled himself up the last few inches to peer inside. 

It was mostly dark, but there were streaks of blue fungus surrounding the immediate few feet of the opening.

“It looks,” he said, both hands clutching the edge of the opening, still craning his neck to see inside. “Like one of those stalagmites punched us a way in when all this happened.” Without looking, JD made a circular motion with his hand towards the rubble and debris.

“Stalactite.” His father corrected with a grunt as he hauled himself up behind Kait. “If it fell from the ceiling, then it would have been a stalactite.” Marcus’s voice was rough with exertion and a little annoyance.

“Right. Well, whatever.” JD eased back from the hole and glanced over his shoulder at the trio waiting behind them. They were lined up, one behind the other, along the side of the cave-in, their hands on the metal wall to steady themselves while they waited on him. JD opened his mouth to speak again but stopped as his eyes drifted outward to the rest of the cavern. “We’re uh…we’re a long way up.” He said, swallowing.

It hadn’t felt like that far of a climb up the loose hillside, but now that he was sitting near the top the view was more than a little staggering. The massive chandelier of vibrant stalactites was a lot closer than it had been before, and the sea of stalagmites along the floor were much more imposing from high up. JD couldn’t help but imagine how one wrong step would have him crashing down onto the bed of florescent and pointy spears. He did his best to push the thought from his mind and forced a smile that he knew came off a little strained.

“Good thing none of us are afraid of heights, huh?” He asked with a chuckle. Kait and his father gazed out over the view and while they had themselves pressed against the relative safety of the metal wall, they didn’t seem too bothered by the sight. Fahz, on the other hand, was visibly sweating and one of his hands had curled to claw against the metal sheet, as though his fingers could grip the unforgiving surface.

“Nice view,” Fahz said, almost casually. “Now can we get a _fucking_ move on?”

“Well,” JD said, leaning back a little to study the punctured hole. “There’s a problem with that.” Fahz’s glare was unforgiving. “Kait might fit, but there’s no way the three of us are getting in there with all this gear on.”

Marcus took a step away from the wall to look up around Kait’s shoulder. “Well shit.” Then he looked down at the heavy armour covering his upper body. “We’ve come this far.” He said, and jammed his Lancer, stock first, into the soil so the muzzle pointed upwards. Then he removed his rucksack and looped the straps around the rifle, using it as an anchor for his gear. With everything secure, Marcus began unbuckling his armour.

“For fuck’s sake,” Fahz sighed dramatically, his eyes rolling skyward, then followed Marcus’s example. “The indignities never end with you lot.”

JD stomped his feet a few times to pack down the dirt beneath his heels and give himself a reasonably steady spot to stand, then he unslung his Lancer and used it to make his own gear anchor. It took some fumbling, but JD managed to shuffle out of his armour, though the few moments he spent pulling it off over his head left him feeling unsteady on his feet. It caused a brief instance of panic has he remembered the fall that awaited him if he accidentally turned in the wrong direction.

The Lancer he’d rammed into the dirt also served as a makeshift armour rack, and he lowered his plates onto it. The result was something that looked like half a scarecrow, sloppily made and sitting cockeyed on the sloping ground.

When he turned back, they all had the similar half-scarecrows next to them on the hill, even Kait. JD didn’t like how exposed he felt in just the sandy grey t-shirt he wore beneath his armour, but at least they didn’t have to remove their boots or greaves.

“I’ll take point.” Kait said, stepping up beside him and looking into the hole.

“No, I should go first.” JD protested immediately, and Kait stared him down with a flat look that did not invite argument.

“You go in first and you’re liable to get stuck trying to squeeze into some tiny space you’re way too big for.” She said, and JD knew she was right. “I’m the smallest, so I’ll go ahead and make sure it’s big enough you three.”

“Yeah, alright.” He conceded, edging back so she would have the space to climb inside.

“Hey Dave!” Kait called into the opening. “You still okay in there?” There was a distant response from the bot, a series of echoing chirps and buzzes. “Alright, we’re coming in.” 

She pulled out her flashlight and gripped the barrel in her teeth, then with a heave Kait pulled herself headfirst into the hole. JD watched as she wiggled forward and her boots disappeared into the darkness.

“Fahz,” he said, waving the man forward. “You’re up.”

Fahz looked surprised and pointed at himself, his finger landing in the centre of the navy blue tank top he wore under his armour. “Me?”

“Yeah you. Get in there.” JD said, swinging his hand towards the opening.

Fahz looked at JD, JD’s pointing finger, then the dark narrow hole in the metal.

“Nah, mate. I’ll bring up the rear.” He said, easing back with a shake of his head.

“Yeah, mate,” JD shot back, mimicking Fahz’s accent. “You’re going next.” Fahz’s mouth tightened into a pouting scowl, and JD eased his expression to one of sympathetic patience and softened his voice. “Look, I know you’re not loving this, but we’ll be with you the whole way. You’re gonna be fine, I promise.”

Fahz stared up at him for moment, then at the opening. His gaze lingered there for a few seconds and then he gave a small nod, his throat tensing as he swallowed.

“Okay.” Fahz’s normally cocksure voice came out as a bare, dry whisper, and JD tried to keep the astonishment from appearing on his face.

Fahz climbed up past Marcus and positioned himself in front of the opening, his fingers clenching the edge of the metal in a white knuckled grip. 

“Just so you know,” Fahz said, plainly trying to inject some of his normal snark back into his voice but failing miserably. “I’m choosing to believe you want me go next so you can stare at my ass.” There was no humour in his tone and his eyes never left the darkness of the opening. 

Without waiting for JD’s response, Fahz bit down on his flashlight and squirmed into the hole.

Marcus moved up beside JD as Fahz vanished from the light of the fungus. They could hear him moving inside, groaning and hissing as his boots squeaked and shoved against the metal.

Marcus ducked his head to stare into the dark.

“You made him go second so he couldn’t chicken out.” He said quietly, giving JD a knowing sidelong glance.

“Yeah, though now I feel a little bad about it.”

His father gave a short huff of amusement, then followed Kait and Fahz inside. It took a bit of angling at first, Marcus’s broad shoulders barely squeezing between the jagged metal, but he made it and soon he was gone. 

JD took one last glance back over the admittedly spectacular view of the stalactites, stalagmites, and glowing fungus, then put his flashlight between his teeth and pulled himself into the metal opening.


	10. Chapter 10

The humming they had heard in the cavern was louder inside the metal passageway. The walls thrummed around him, and JD could feel the vibrations pulse up through his bones.

It was slow going inside the dark tunnel. There was barely enough room to move his arms ahead and pull himself through, and he kept trying to kick his feet out to find purchase but his knees would hit the wall and his boots would just slide uselessly against the floor or walls.

If JD tried to lift himself—to prop himself up on his elbows and attempt a belly crawl—the back of his head and his shoulder blades would press against the ceiling and he wouldn’t have enough space to get his arms braced under him.

The best he could do was stretch his arms out in front of himself and feel for a handhold or a small ridge to catch his fingers on, and slide forward on his stomach. His forearms and biceps burned with strain after only a few feet, and he made a point of flexing his fingers after every pull to give his arms the chance to relax a little.

The butt of his small flashlight was clenched in his teeth so his hands could remain free. In its light several feet ahead, JD could see the soles of his father’s boots as he shimmied forward. His dad was bulkier than he was and had an even harder time moving along, but he made no sound of complaint. Occasionally JD would hear a little grunt of strain, but Marcus appeared to be undeterred by the small space.

Off in the distance—maybe only fifteen or so feet ahead—JD could hear Fahz’s cursing and griping. His voice was muffled as it tried to move around Marcus’s body in the tiny tunnel, but there was no question that Fahz was letting his mouth run. 

It was a relief to JD, actually. The moment Fahz went silent would be the moment JD really started to worry. 

He couldn’t see very well, but the passage seemed to curve in a few places, and occasionally he would feel a rib of metal press into his chest or thighs as the shaft dropped or rose a few inches. The small tunnel felt disjointed, as though someone had failed to proper align the sections together when assembling them.

It took far too long to get through the near-black passage way, with each pull forward probably only moving his body ahead six inches, or maybe a foot. And if there was a curve or a corner or a sudden ridge in the path, then it would take some extra maneuvering to get through. More than once JD had to pause while his father struggled to wiggle his way through a difficult section, but he was grateful for the break to let his muscles rest.

All of a sudden light beamed up ahead and his father’s boots disappeared from view. JD squinted and briefly raised his hand to shield his eyes, then heard Kait mutter an apology and the shaft of light moved away.

“Just a few more feet.” She said, sounding as though she was still out of breath. 

JD reached forward, motivated by the literal light at the end of the tunnel, and hauled himself another handful of inches.

“Here,” he heard his father say before the older man reached towards him, his body blocking the light again. 

JD clasped Marcus’s wrist tightly and felt the pull in his shoulder as his father dragged him forward, and then abruptly his upper body was out of the small tunnel and into the light.

Marcus let go of his arm and JD dropped his hands to brace them on the floor, about a foot beneath the passage’s rim. With a bit of shuffling, he walked forward on his palms until he could pull his legs free, and then stood up and arched his back in a stretch.

“Well that fun.” He muttered after he had pulled the flashlight from his teeth and held it near his shoulder. “Everyone good?”

He got nods from Kait and Marcus, who looked fine aside from their exertion-induced sweating. 

“The list of things I never want to do again keeps getting longer, but that just topped it.” Fahz said with an angry finger jabbed at the tiny tunnel, and he glowered miserably at JD through his rose-coloured lenses. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his jaw flexed continuously, and he looked as though he was on the edge of a good and proper freakout. JD gave the man a smile and a firm clap on the shoulder and didn’t bring up the fact that they would likely have to make a return trip through the same cramped passage.

JD clutched his flashlight in his fist and took a few moments to look around, and felt strangely disappointed by their surroundings. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but a plain metal-grey hallway wasn’t it. 

The hall stretched off in both directions before curving out of sight, and there was nothing spectacular about any of it. There were no doors or windows or panels, just flat grey walls and a slightly darker shade of grey on the floor.

Lines of faint artificial light glowed above their heads where the walls met the ceiling, providing just enough light to see by. Some sections flickered weakly or were completely black, creating shadowy gaps. If he had been asked to guess, JD would have said it looked like failing emergency lighting.

“Dave, you pick up anything in here?” He clicked off his light and tucked it back in his belt as he turned to the bot. “Anything we should know about?” 

Dave gave a few beeps, then rotated his whole body a few degrees clockwise, then again counterclockwise. A bot’s equivalent of a shake of the head.

Fahz still had the bot’s control panel strapped to his arm, and he uncrossed his arms to examine the readout. 

“It’s—“ Fahz’s voice broke slightly and he quickly cleared his throat into his hand. “It’s looking good. Air quality is fine, no signs of Swarm activity.”

“Good.” They had had to leave their rifles behind in the cavern, but they each had their sidearms, a few extra magazines, and a couple of grenades. If they got into a fight inside whatever this big metal _thing_ was, they wouldn’t be helpless but they would be far from well armed. “Let’s take a few minutes to catch our breath. Dave,” the bot swung toward him. “Engage camo and scout ahead”

Dave jetted away to their left, and just before he rounded the bend JD saw him engage his camouflage and disappear with a shimmer of bending light.

“Everybody hydrate. It’s getting warmer and the last thing we need is someone passing out.” JD ordered. Their extra water and supplies were in their packs out with their rifles, but they all carried full canteens on their belts and a couple ration bars in the cargo pockets of their pants.

They each downed a few mouthfuls of water and chewed at least a couple bites of their ration bars, listening to the thrum of the walls around them. 

The air was still and old and smelled faintly of chemicals, not at all like the earthy scent of the tunnels and caverns. And the temperature was warmer than it had been in the cavern, sitting just above what JD considered comfortable.

“Those were Locust tunnels,” Marcus said, the wrapper of a ration bar crinkling in his hand as he pointed toward the narrow passage they’d crawled through. “But this isn’t Locust.” He gestured to the walls and ceiling.

“I agree. Human then?” Kait asked as she chewed.

“Must be.” The old man said as he took another bite of his bar.

“If it’s human, what the hell is it doing down here?” Fahz asked, seeming to calm a little as he ate. He wasn’t as tense as he had been, though if his hands weren’t occupied he kept crossing his arms in a defensive posture.

“Maybe an old bunker or something, left over from the Pendulum Wars?” JD offered. “Or old mining equipment?”

“Still going with the ‘leftover mining equipment’ theory?” Kait retorted.

“If you have a better reason for something this big to be underground, I’d love to hear it.” He shot back as he took a drink from his canteen.

Off in the distance they heard Dave’s pulse function activate again, and Fahz shoved the last two-inch chunk of his ration bar into his mouth as he stared down at the panel on his arm.

“Bot’s found some rooms or something.” He said, the words barely intelligible around his mouthful of food. “He’s marked a few locations for us to investigate.” A map was forming on the display as Dave scanned the halls ahead, small indicators appearing as he went.

“Alright, we’ll check out Dave’s directions first, then double back and investigate things on that end.” JD nodded down the hall to their right, which remained black and uncharted on Fahz’s display panel. 

“We could split up to cover more ground.” Kait suggested, but JD shook his head.

“We’re unarmoured and low on firepower. If we run into trouble we’re better off as a group than as pairs.” Then he pulled his Boltok from the magnetic mount on his thigh and verified it was loaded. “Shall we?”

They set off in Dave’s direction, JD leading with Kait at the rear. Compared to the rough Locust tunnels they had followed earlier, the hallway seemed absurdly pristine, despite the failing lighting.

The hall curved slightly and perpetually, with the path ahead forever remaining just slightly out of sight. It took a few minutes for JD to conclude that they were walking the circumference of a very large circle. Based on the distance and the grade of the angle, the structure was _massive_.

Up ahead JD spotted Dave, uncloaked and waiting for them. He hovered in front of a doorway placed along the inner curve of the hallway. The door was shut and there was no handle or knob with which to open it. In the wall beside the door was a black glossy square that Dave was poking with a manipulator, to no reward.

Following Dave’s example, JD reached out and tapped the square with his left hand. It responded after a few seconds, flickering to life to reveal a touch pad with a few white rectangles. Dave hovered closer to examine the panel, still trying to coax a response from it with his arm. 

It seemed to only want to respond to JD’s touch, evident by a flash when he touched the right-most rectangle. The door gave a lurch and noisily slid aside, though it seized to a halt about halfway. 

It was enough that JD could see inside, and he watched as the lights in the room strobed once, twice, then managed to come on. It cast pallid light over the room’s contents and JD stepped away to let Dave slip inside.

“It’s a bedroom.” He said, turning to the others. Dave floated around the room, scanning as he went. After thirty seconds or so the bot seemed satisfied and squeezed his way back out into the hall. 

Marcus peered inside and studied the single bed in the corner and the desk. There were a few personal belongings scattered about the room, but it was clear that nothing had been touched in years.

“So people were living here?” Kait asked.

“Looks that way.” JD said with a disinterested shrug.

There were more bedrooms along the hall, and some had failing doors like the first, and one didn’t open at all. JD and Fahz forcibly pushed the door open a few inches just to confirm it was another bedroom, then abandoned the effort.

“This is fascinating and all, but please tell me I didn’t crawl through my own personal hell just to discover an underground hotel.” Fahz uttered after they’d opened the door to the ninth bedroom.

“You see the size of this place?” Marcus said as they walked on. “There’s more here than living quarters, we just haven’t found it yet.”

And he was right. Nine bedrooms turned into fifteen, and then the sixteenth door aside to reveal stairs.

“Now we’re talking.” JD walked through the door as Dave fluttered ahead. “So which way, Dave?” He asked, pointing first up and then down.

Dave spun to look at him for a moment, then emitted a deafening pulse. In the tight space of the stairwell the sound made JD flinch and wince.

“Ow,” he muttered, rubbing his ear. “Some warning before you do that next time?”

Dave’s only response was to float down the stairs, the group following diligently behind.

The thrumming in the air continued as they moved, and it was all encompassing. The railing vibrated under JD's touch as they descended.

The next level down was more living quarters and looked largely the same as the previous floor, though some of the bedrooms were larger and clearly meant for couples or even families.

"I'm guessing bunker." Kait said as they walked down the stairs again.

"I'm guessing bunker too." JD agreed.

In total there were four levels of living quarters, at least as far as they had searched. The circumference of the total structure was far too large to walk all the way around in any sort of reasonable timeframe, so they opened the doors to any room they could find, then stopped and turned back when the way ahead was bare.

The fifth and sixth levels were inaccessible, the metal doors and walls buckling inward and a mass of stone bulging its way into the stairwell. JD could only guess what would have caused the rock to spear through the metal of the structure and cause that much damage. They edged their way around jutting rock face and continued downward.

The seventh level was far more interesting than living quarters. The hallway looked the same, with the intermittent doorways lining the inwards curve of the hall, but the rooms were larger and more spacious.

JD held his Boltok at the ready and stepped through the door to the first room, squinting in the dark, half-illuminated space. The lights flickered and tried their best to brighten as they entered, but it was their flashlights and Dave's spotlight that provided them with the most light.

"Lab?" JD asked as he approached a row of high tables, his flashlight glinting off the dull metal and glass.

"I think? Doesn't look like any lab I've seen." Kait murmured. "Not that I've seen many."

The room stretched away from them, with broad support pillars intersecting the space every thirty feet or so. Sheets of glass hung vertically over many of the tables, causing reflections to dance all around them. It put JD on edge as his peripheral vision kept picking up flashes of movement that he knew were just Fahz and his father walking behind him.

The tables were white and would have looked stark and sterile if it wasn't for the dust and grime that clung to them. The walls were not the same metal grey as the hallway, but a lighter sheen with a finish that sent off rainbow flares when JD pointed his flashlight directly at them.

There was a flash of light and a sharp _”Fuck!"_ from Fahz and JD whirled around, his Boltok pointed and ready for a target.

Fahz reeled back a few steps and stopped, his Talon held up in one hand while the other grasped a table edge to steady himself. The hanging glass sheet in front of him flickered and flashed, colours and lines running down its surface to fade away as they reached the bottom.

"What did you do?" Marcus asked, coming up behind Fahz. The older man was less jumpy that the other three, and hadn't yet drawn his sidearm.

"I bumped into it, is all." Fahz said defensively, dropping his Talon back down. "Think I hit it with my elbow."

Marcus grunted and stepped forward, crossing his arms over his chest as he studied the glass panel and it flashed and flared in front of him. The glass sheet started just above his head and ended a few inches above the table surface, and ran the length of the table.

JD holstered his Boltok and watched as his father uncrossed one arm and touched the colourful glass. The colours shifted at his touch and tried to converge around his fingertip, but the flickering made the movement choppy and disjointed.

Curiously, Kait tapped her finger against the closest glass sheet. It didn't respond and remained completely transparent. Undeterred, she walked to another table and tapped the glass there. 

It burst to life and exploded with a flurry of colour. The panel swirled around as though it was trying to form a coherent image but kept forgetting what shape it wanted, shifting to try and assemble one thing before abandoning it half way through and trying to build something else.

After a few seconds it settled and showed a luminous image of a simple green plant with two broad leaves and a single long-stemmed bud rising from between them.

"Neat." JD said.

"They're screens, I guess." Kait shrugged, walking around to peer at the display from the far side of the table. The moment she reached the opposite of the table she took a quick step back. “Woah!” She uttered, waving her hand in front of her face.

JD arched an eyebrow, not seeing what had caused her surprise, and moved to join her. As soon as he was at her side the image of the green plant exploded outward to become fully three dimensional and hover above the table. He blinked rapidly and swatted at the left leaf with his hand. 

The leaf flopped backward and waved back and forth as it settled back into its natural position, as if he had actually hit it. Intrigued, JD nudged the closed bud with his finger and it wobbled and swayed. He felt nothing as his index finger swept over the leaf, but it reacted as though it was real and flexing beneath his touch.

“Now that’s really neat.” He uttered, smiling a little as he glanced at Kait. She was doing the same as him but her motions were offset to the right by about a foot, not at all lined up with the plant in front of him.

“This is really cool.” She said, an amazed smile on her face.

“Uh…what are you doing?” Fahz asked from a few feet away, hands on his hips and his head cocked a little to the side.

“You see this? The plant?” JD flicked the bud so it swung wildly in the air in front of him, and pointed at it with his other hand.

“Whatever it is you’re looking at, we can’t see it.” Marcus stepped to the side of the table, one eyebrow raised slightly beneath the brim of his skull cap. 

“What do you mean you can’t see it? It’s right here.” JD drew a circle around the plant with his finger.

“I see nothin’, mate.” 

“Okay, come here.” JD stepped away and blinked as the plant abruptly disappeared from his vision, leaving only the screen and the empty table. “Woah, where’d it go?” He waved his hand in the area where he had just seen the big leaves. One step forward and the plant flashed back to life in front of him, and another step back and it was gone. “So neat. Stand there.” He pointed at the ground, waving at his father to step up.

Marcus’s reaction was a bit more subtle, but JD could see it when his father’s eyes widened a little and his head drew back a fraction in surprise. One hand tentatively reached out to a point in the air, then withdrew.

“Some sort of holographic tech?” The old man asked.

“If it is, I’ve never seen anything like it.” Kait shook her head, her hands still moving in front of her.

“Alright, I’ve got to see what the fuss is all about.” Fahz stepped up as Marcus moved away, standing in front of the table and giving the space an unimpressed look.

He stared for a long moment, his eyes darting back and forth, then turned to JD and shrugged.

“I don’t get it. It’s a screen with a plant on it. Big bloody deal.”

JD frowned. “You don’t see it?”

“See what?”

“There’s a plant. Right in front of you. Floating.” He jabbed a finger at the block of air directly in front of Fahz’s chest.

“Uh, no. There’s not.” 

“It looks like a tulip. Right here.”

“ _Narcissus Seratinus._ It’s a daffodil.” Marcus interjected absently, earning him stunned looks from everyone. He paused, as if realizing he’d spoken out loud, and shifted on his feet. “Mother was a biologist.” He said gruffly, as if annoyed he had to remind them. “I learned about plants as a kid.”

“Well your magical floating daffodil is no where to be seen.” Fahz said with a huff.

“Here.” Kait reached out and plucked the glasses from his face.

“Hey, give those—shit!” His hands, which has been reaching for the retreating glasses, immediately shot back and Fahz’s attention was drawn to the space above the table. “There’s uh…there’s a floating plant right there.” He said, pointing at the air.

“So it doesn’t work with glasses. Good to know.” JD said with a grin as Fahz’s fingers reached out in front of him.

Fahz pawed at the air, completely enthralled, and said, “I’ve read about something like this.”

“Woah woah, hold up. You read?” Kait asked as she stepped away, smirking and clutching his glasses.

“Don’t know about you, but I get bored when I’m sitting on the loo.” Fahz muttered, more focused on the image in front of him. “Some boffins were developing imaging tech that beamed light directly into your retinas, supposed to let you see all sorts of stuff. I thought it was a load of bull, but…” They watched as he flicked something in the air, like JD had earlier. “But this makes me think they got it to work.”

“Baird is gonna get a kick out of this.” Kait turned to look around the room some more, tapping a few of the glass display panels as she went. To free up her hand, she perched Fahz’s pink-lensed glasses on her head.

Some of the displays Kait tapped blinked to life, but most flickered or remained dark. A few were shattered or cracked, their shards scattered across the tables and floor.

“Yeah,” Marcus agreed. “Dave, scan that thing, will you?” He gestured to the panel in front of Fahz. The bot obeyed, scanning the glass screen, the table beneath it, and then the connection points that led to the ceiling.

The far wall was a mass of small vials and jars and bottles, each filled with seeds. They were labeled, but in a language JD didn’t recognize. Some of the seeds were clearly foul and useless, but others were dry and carefully preserved. He plucked one—a tiny jar with seeds that looked like dried peas—and shook it so it rattled, then he placed it back on the shelf. Looking down the wall, he realized there must have been thousands of the tiny bottles.

JD took a step back and surveyed the big room. “So, we’ve got a cool holographic projector with a daffodil, a wall full of seeds, and—“

“And some displays about trees.” Kait waved a thumb casually towards two of the glass panels that had sprung to life when she touched them. Each of them—one was only half illuminated because a crack ran a jagged line down the middle—had colourful diagrams of large coniferous trees.

“Botany lab?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Botany lab.” She agreed with a nod.

“It’s cool and all, but a plant lab isn’t the mission.” Fahz finally pulled himself away from the holographic display.

“He’s right,” Marcus said as he placed the bottle of seeds he had been examining back on the shelf. “Let’s keep looking.”

JD followed Kait and Marcus from the lab, Fahz towing along behind.

“Can I have my glasses back now?”

“You know, I was just thinking I might look good in—oh my god you’re blind.” Kait said flatly as she dropped the glasses from the top of her head to the bridge of her nose. She blinked at Fahz through the rose lenses, her eyes wide. “These are prescription?!”

Fahz gave an exasperated sigh and rubbed the shaved side of his head. “Yes they are, now can I have them back?” He asked, holding his hand out.

Kait twisted her head to look around, ignoring Fahz’s hand. “No wonder you wear these things all the time. You can’t see without them!”

“M’eyesight’s not that bad.” He huffed, stepping forward and bracing one hand on her shoulder while the other pulled the glasses off her face. 

“Oh it’s bad. They gave you a rifle when you have vision like that?!”

“Bloody hell,” came the muttered response. Fahz placed the glasses back on his face and glared at Kait through the lenses. “If you must know, it’s just the stuff up close I have trouble with. I can shoot Swarm just fine without them.”

“So is _that_ why the only reading you do is on the toilet?” JD asked. “It would explain a lot, actually.”

“Can’t believe I signed up for this fucking escapade.” Fahz said under his breath as he started walking down the hall after Dave, Kait and JD grinning at his back.


	11. Chapter 11

There were more laboratories on the floor, each mirrored copies of the botany lab, but with different focuses. 

When they tapped the glass screens in one lab, an image of a horned beetle appeared and there were rows of clear boxes with desiccated insect shells along the far wall. Most had whithered away to dust, but some of the carapaces were intact enough to piece together the creatures they used to be. 

"Mountain lemmings." Kait said as they explored another lab, her hand toying with the hologram JD couldn't see from his angle.

"And this is some sort of hare." Fahz added from another table, where the display was flickering and blank but evidently the holographic tech was still functional. 

If JD stood at just the right spot, he could see the small shard of light as it reflected off Kait's cornea. It reinforced Fahz's idea that the images were being beamed directly into their eyes, rather than projecting into the air like Baird’s more primitive holograms.

In the fifth lab they checked—fish seemed to be the focus in that one—Marcus stood examining the shattered remains of one of the glass displays. After a few seconds he stooped and gingerly plucked a piece of glass off the floor and shone his flashlight into its reflective surface. In the light, JD could see the shimmering lines of circuits and something that looked like a camera lens.

"Baird'll probably want to take a look." His father said as he tucked the glass shard into a pouch on his belt. JD nodded, knowing that even if they brought back nothing else, a sample of that holographic imaging tech would probably make Baird's week.

The labs were numerous, but like the bedrooms on the previous floor, they eventually stopped and only the blank hall laid ahead. They doubled back and descended the stairs to find three more levels of various laboratories. While the first two levels had been concerned with plants and animals, the third and forth seemed focused on a larger variety of topics.

One room was row upon row of desks and chairs, with smaller display panels on each one. JD tried to move one of the chairs and take a better look at a display, but the plastic-like material was brittle and cracked the moment he slid it back over the floor. One of the legs crumpled under its own weight and the chair toppled backwards, splintering the chair back as it hit the floor. The noise was jarring in the relative quiet of the room, making the others whirl to look at him.

“Sorry.” He said quickly, kicking the remains of the chair away and watching as the material kept crumbling as it skittered across the floor.

The display remained dark when he tapped it, and he was about to back away to try another panel when it blinked on.

“Huh.” JD murmured, leaning in closer and studying the transparent mountain ranges that floated into view in front of him. 

“Almost looks like tactical data. Topographical maps and location analysis.” Marcus said a few rows away, looking at his own display. “Still can’t read any of this though.” JD glanced down at the floating mountains lazily spinning in front of him, noting the labels in that odd language.

“Does that look like Vasgari to you, Fahz?” He asked, nodding his head toward the screen. JD could recognize--but not read--quite a few different languages, whether it was the syllabic swirls of the Pesang people or the Cyrillic blocks of Gorasni. Vasgari wasn’t all that dissimilar to Gorasni, if he remembered correctly. He knew some part of him recognized the language, but he couldn’t be sure where he had seen it, only that it looked achingly familiar. 

Fahz glanced up and stared at the display for a moment, then shook his head. “Nah. I’ve seen plenty of me dad’s old medical textbooks to know what Vasgari’s supposed to look like, and that’s not it.”

They had Dave scan what information they could find, then moved on down the hall. They all made guesses for each room’s use as they explored: geology, meteorology, astronomy. 

“Whatever they were doing down here, they must have had every type of scientist under the sun.” Kait said as they left a lab they assumed had been used for some sort of advance technology development. Marcus had collected a few more scraps of tech to bring back to Baird, but JD wasn’t holding out hope any of it was useful.

“You know what this reminds me of?” There was a reluctant lilt to his father’s voice as he spoke. “Azura. All these laboratories? Scientists?” He gestured to the door of some sort of marine lab as they passed.

JD tilted his head and considered it for a moment. “If the COG had a secret bunker stowed away for the end of the world, it’s not hard to believe someone else did too.”

“We Vasgari were always very forward-thinking people.” Fahz chimed, an overly smug look on his face.

Kait held up a hand, one side of her mouth tugging to the side. “There’s a few problems with that theory. First of all, if they were making an emergency fate-of-the-world type bunker, why the hell would they put it underground?”

Fahz made a face. “Where the hell else are you going to put a bunker? Not everyone’s got a secret island in their back pocket for the apocalypse.” 

“Sure, but if they built this place in response to the Locust, why would anyone put it in the centre of a Locust burrow?”

“Who says it was in response to the Locust? Azura was built during the Pendulum Wars.” JD countered.

Kait shook her head. “Did anyone have tech like this during the Pendulum Wars?” 

“Vasgar invented all sorts of things. Microchips and the like. Smart bunch, we were.” Fahz tapped his temple.

“Hate to break it to you,” JD gave him a slap on the shoulder. “But I think all that Vasgari intelligence skipped over your twig in the family tree.”

“Look,” Marcus cut in before Fahz could respond with a jibe on his own. “We’re not here to speculate about why this place is here or what purpose it served. There are people in New Ephyra who can do that. We’re here to scout it, grab intel, and then go home.” 

His father was right, of course. They’d been exploring the metal structure for a few hours now, not to mention the hours they had spent marching through the caverns to reach it. JD had expected the mission to be an in-and-out job, a few hours at the most. Already they were way over his initial time estimates, and before long they'd have to consider resting for the night.

Their bickering and theorizing brought to an abrupt end, they carried on with their exploration.

The humming throughout the structure grew stronger and louder with every level they descended. There were areas where things were rattling noisily from the vibrations, and it was clear the shaking was causing minor damage. Some of the glass displays swayed back and for from the ceiling, more of the plastic chairs seemed to disintegrate and crumple into jagged piles on the floor, items that had been sitting on shelves or desks shimmied their way with every vibration to eventually tumble down to the ground.

“All this space and equipment,” Kait murmured as they made their way back to the stairs. “But where are the people?”

JD hadn’t considered it until then, but Kait raised a good point. They had seen dozens of living quarters and there was space for hundreds of workers in the labs, but they had yet to see another soul inside the structure, or even a body.

Occasionally he would notice small things like a cup sitting on a desk or the way a chair had been left pushed back as though someone had just gotten up to go run an errand. It suddenly made everything seem very eerie, and JD wished Kait hadn’t brought it up.

They walked down the stairs and quickly skimmed through a level that appeared to be for recreational purposes. A mess hall, some sort of large open room JD guessed was for assemblies and meetings, and a space that appeared to be meant for exercise and weight lifting, though it didn’t look like any fitness equipment they had in the COG gym in New Ephyra. Fahz took a keen interest in one of the weight machines, but let it be when they moved on without him.

The next flight of stairs down didn’t lead to another level. Instead it kept winding downwards and JD counted at least 15 flights before they finally found another door. He had wanted to give up on the descent and head back up, but that engine-like rumble was growing stronger with every step and he knew they had to figure out where it was coming from.

“Anyone else really dreading having to hike all the way back up?” Fahz asked rather dejectedly.

“If it makes you feel any better,” JD said absently as he tapped at the door’s control panel. “At least we don’t have to do it in armour.”

There was a brief pause. “That does make me feel better, actually.” Fahz’s tone lightened a little. "Thanks."

“Did...Fahz just thank you?” Kait asked, crossing her arms and leaning on the wall beside the panel.

JD stopped poking the glass for a moment and stared blankly ahead. "You know, I think he _did._ And it was genuine too. Like a real, honest-to-goodness thank you." He made a show of looking stunned as he turned to look at Fahz. "I'm touched."

"Oh yes, I get it. I’m an arsehole, how hysterical. Now,” Fahz made a shooing motion with his fingers. “Back to work." 

JD was expecting another hallway to appear when the door slid aside, but what greeting him was a wall of hot air and near-deafening sound. Reflexively JD's hand shot up to shield his face from the heat and he ducked his head as if the noise was something he could shy away from. 

“I think we found the source of our seismic activity!” He hollered over his shoulder, though he had no idea if they heard him. It was the thunderous rumbling they had been hearing throughout the structure, and now it wasn’t dampened by layers of stone or metal. It was raw and uninhibited and it rattled him to his bones. 

The floor trembled beneath him and his metal greaves clattered as he walked through the doorway, his hand dropping away as his eyes slowly panned upwards. Dave quickly fluttered passed, floating up to scan and explore, his little optics shifting back and forth excitedly. 

The initial blast of heat had been alarming, but it wasn't harmful. JD knew he would be sweating in minutes, but it was no worse that the desert sun up on the surface. At least without their armour they would be more comfortable.

Based on his quick visual assessment of their surroundings, JD surmised that the gargantuan room was circular like all the previous levels. Unlike the previous levels, the ceiling was so far above his head he had to squint to make out the flickering lights, and the walls were not the same monotonous metal-grey that had lined the corridors and laboratories. 

Instead of the smooth unspectacular walls, it was a maze of metal pipework and heavy thick tubing, with tanks and pylons lining walkways that weaved their way outwards. Wires and cabling were routed in precise lines along the pipes, connecting electrical panels to machinery. 

Ahead of them were massive stacks of what JD could only guess were pistons and some sort of valve system. He didn't know much about engines--that had always been Del's specialty--but it looked like the biggest, loudest, most impressive engine room he had ever seen. It was like someone had taken the bowels of the COGs largest naval warships, grouped them together, and supersized them.

Rubbing his stubbled head and feeling the sweat already staring to bead, JD craned his head back and saw multiple levels extending upwards. The ceiling appeared to slope downwards from the centre of the room where they had entered, ending somewhere far beyond their current location and obscured behind all the machinery.

“Baird should be here.” He uttered, his head shaking side to side slowly at the sheer scale of the place. Once they returned topside with Dave's footage and scans, they'd have to physically restrain Baird to stop him from hopping into the first Grindlift and blindly burrowing his way down to this massive contraption. A place like this would be the old man's personal heaven.

“What?!” Kait yelled, leaning towards him so he could hear her. She had a hand cupped around one ear and cringed as she tried to concentrate through the noise.

“I said,” JD raised his voice to the volume he regularly used on the battlefield. “Baird should be here!”

Kait blinked a few times at him, her face twisting a little. “ _What?!_ ”

JD shook his head and waved his hand tell her not to worry about it. She shrugged, and JD looked back at Fahz and Marcus.

Fahz was saying something—JD could see him mouthing some sort of obscenity and exclamation—but it was lost in all the rumbling of the machine. Marcus was as stoic and quiet as ever, his eyes narrow and scrutinizing.

With a swing of his arm, JD gestured for them to follow and began marching along the inner wall where the walkway led them in the familiar curving stroll. The open space really helped put into perspective just how large the and truly impressive the structure was. Whatever this place had been, whether it was an emergency end-of-the-world bunker or something else, it was a boggling feat of engineering and technology and Baird was going to _lose his mind_.

The white noise of the massive engine--whatever its purpose--was easy to get lost in. JD couldn't hear anything or anyone else, and he found himself looking back over his should every twenty steps just to make sure the others were still behind him. It would be a great place for an ambush, with so much sound to cover footsteps and so many nooks and crannies to hide in. His eyes darted from one shadow to another warily, his hand resting on the solid grip of his Boltok.

It was maybe fifteen minutes of walking past the continuous tanks and pipes and wires when they came to some sort of central point where everything parted aside to reveal an empty space on the floor. Across from the seemingly blank area, tucked in the inner wall, was another doorway. This one was wider and taller, like the door to a garage.

Marcus approached the frame and tapped the dim panel beside. With a _whoosh_ that was covered by the rumbling of the engine, the door split down the middle and slid aside. Fahz held his arms up in victory and relief.

"Thank _fucking_ god!" He yelled, though JD could just barely make him out. "An elevator!"

And that was definitely what it looked like: a large wide elevator with big control displays on the opposing walls.

JD jumped when his father tapped him on the shoulder, having not heard him walk up behind him. Marcus pointed to the flat section on the floor that was void of any of the pipes or cables. It took him a second, then JD realized it was a lift platform, its rails running up the metal scaffolding all the way to the ceiling.

JD nodded in agreement and motioned the group forward to the platform. Tilting his head back, he could see lights glowing at the top and he prodded the control panel until it flashed to life. Tapping the button that seemed to indicate the top level, he watched as railings rose from recessed grooves in the floor. There was a groan and a shudder beneath their feet, and they rose upwards.

The view was a marvel and JD's brain ached just thinking how the Vasgaris had managed to build something so incredible and massive. And how had they done it without anyone detecting it? It must have taken years, decades even, to excavate all the dirt and stone, then build the metal complex in the space. That kind of project would have required billions of dollars, thousands of people, and more resources than JD could even imagine. 

And they still had no idea what it was _for_.

The top level was incredibly promising. It looked like some sort of control deck, lined with displays--solid blacks ones, not the fragile holographic panels they had seen--and riddled with desks and swaths of buttons and switches and toggles and dials.

Only one display was illuminated and it was at the far end of the level, where the sloping ceiling intersected the floor to create a slanted wall. The display flashed repeatedly, a bright pulsing yellow. At its centre was a symbol JD didn't recognize, but solid black triangle conveyed the universal sign of _warning!_ , though the small circles floating at the center of each side were unfamiliar.

With two fingers pointing at the display he sent Dave forward to investigate. They all watched as the bot examined the display and the symbol, then zipped over the controls in front of it. There was no standard interface port, JD realized. No place where Dave could jack in and attempt to control the machine.

It wasn't a _huge_ surprise, really. Not every nation had adopted the standardized data ports, especially when they were introduced so soon before the Locust War. The old UIR missile launch tower hadn't had them, and Jack had needed to access the raw wiring to get into the system. Remembering that, JD began looking for an access hatch, anywhere that exposed the innards to let Dave into the system.

He found a panel with a handle a few feet away and yanked it free. Dave dove in immediately, his arms moving about as he tried to make sense of the circuit boards and cables that lay within.

To JD's surprise, the bot backed away after a full minute, having accomplished nothing. The massive engine rumbled on and Dave just stared at him blankly. There was a brief moment where JD was at a total loss, not knowing what to do if their bot suddenly couldn't do its job. 

Marcus stared at the stunned bot for a moment, then JD saw him give a little shrug and reach forward to press a glowing blue button on the console. 

Nothing happened.

So Marcus pressed another, and still nothing happened.

Then they were all pressing buttons and throwing switches, regardless of their unknown purpose. Even Dave joined in, a manipulator slowly turning a dial while the other attacked a row of small black toggles.

One minute ticked by, then two. Nothing they did seemed to make any difference in the engine rumble around them. JD huffed and took a step back to survey the panels and displays. 

Maybe there was a lock on the system? Some sort of failsafe engaged to prevent tampering? Did they had to find the override so their random button pressing and switch flicking would take effect?

He looked back a the big yellow alert symbol, still flashing steadily. 

Staring at it absently while he considered their next course of action, JD almost didn’t notice the subtle change to the symbol.

It was still a triangle and still solid black with the three accompanying circles at each side. Or rather, the upper two sides had circles. 

A single black chevron hovered where the bottom-most circle had been, and its angular tip pointed downwards. 

JD's eyes followed the direction of the pointing chevron and found a pulsing green node in the control panel beneath the display. It had been lost in the sea of buttons, looking no different than many of its fellows, but it flashed in time with the yellow warning screen.

JD pressed it, not really expecting anything to happen. But as soon as he felt it depress the green light went out and there was a sharp pop from within the panel, loud enough to be heard amidst the noise.

He jerked back, startled when the entire control desk shuddered and split apart down the middle, revealing a six-inch gap. Ten wide slots ran down in a column, all empty except for one. With a sharp clunking noise the dark grey rectangular object in the fifth slot ejected and jutted upward. 

The others had stopped their rampage across the switches and keys and were staring at him. JD glanced back, apprehension tensing his muscles, then reached out and with a cautious, tentative hand, he grasped the rectangle and lifted it from its cradle. It was solid and weighty and felt warm in his fingers.

JD eased back and flipped the object over in his hands as Dave approached. He held it up while the bot ran his scanner over it, and JD was about to ask Fahz to read off the scan results but the open control panel behind him gave a grinding shriek of metal and slammed itself shut.

The flashing yellow display blinked three more times before fading to darkness. Then in a wave, starting from the centre console where JD had retrieved the rectangle, the buttons, dials and switches all gave one last weak pulse and died. 

They had several seconds to share confused looks when distant thunking and squealing echoed through the din. Somewhere around the curve of the structure a valve released a huff of compressed air and the engine gave a low growl like a Minotaur shifting into low gear.

A few more seconds ticked by and the thunderous noise began to ebb, the decibels trickling away as the giant machine began winding down.

They all looked at each other, eyes wide with alarm, then in unison they turned their attention to the object in JD's hand.


	12. Chapter 12

It became very apparent very quickly that shutting down the huge engine was not the same as shutting down the engine of a Packhorse or a Mule. It was not an instant deactivation brought on by the turn of a key or the press of a button.

All around them the metal rumbled and growled and there was a wild sizzling whistle of compressed air being released. The vibrations beneath their feet changed from a steady, mellow trembling, to a hammering, lugging clacking.

JD listened, on edge and ready to tell Delta to bolt for the nearest exit at the first sign of trouble. But through all the loud clanging noises and the shuddering metal, it was clear the big machine was, slowly but surely, quieting.

Despite the decline in the engine noise it was still too loud to properly talk, so Fahz pointed at the dark grey rectangle in JD’s hand, then held his hands out questioningly. 

JD gave a clueless shrug, offering the object to Fahz to look over. The other man took it and flipped it over several times, then gave a shrug of his own and handed it off to Kait. Marcus walked away from them to stare over the edge of the platform at the engine room as the machine wound down.

Dave swivelled and watched as the rectangle moved around, clearly intrigued. He scanned it again while Kait held the object still to study one side of it, and gave a little wiggle of his manipulators that JD took to mean the bot was excited.

Kait tapped her finger against one end of the rectangle, and JD saw the groove in the metal where it had plugged into the control panel. Considering the big engine began shutting down the moment he removed the object, JD guessed it was some sort of key.

He pointed at Fahz’s forearm-mounted datapad and stepped up beside him to skim through the results of Dave’s scan. It was constructed of a fairly standard metal alloy and was emitting no energy signal, but there wasn’t much else the bot could tell them about it.

Jack’s scanner had been more thorough and could pick up on much more detail, but Dave didn’t have the upgrades to handle the complex tech. They’d have to wait to get the item back to Baird before they could really understand what it was.

Retrieving the object from Kait, JD slipped it into one of his pants pockets and walked to the edge of the platform with his father. Several of the overhead lights had gone out and from their high vantage point it almost looked a browned-out city, with a few glimmers here and there. 

There was nothing of interest left on the control deck once the panels had all powered down, so JD ushered them onto the lift and they descended to the bottom floor.

“Hey Delta! You down there?” The voice blasted in his ear, and everyone stopped and pressed their fingers to their earpieces.

“Cole! Yeah, we read you.” JD yelled to be heard over the roaring, his face lighting up with delight at the sound of his uncle's voice.

“Damn it’s good to hear your voice!” There was still a fair bit of static interference, but the incessant beeping from before was gone completely. “Our radios and nav gear just came back online. Was that you?”

“Yeah,” JD casted his eyes up to the dim control level, his free hand absently patting the pocket with the rectangular object. “I think that was us.”

“The hell did you find down there?”

“Honestly?” He said with an incredulous laugh. “We have no idea. Some sort of giant bunker on top of some sort of giant machine."

“Ooh baby, that's gonna make Baird all sorts of tingly, hearin' that!" Cole laughed in his ear.

"Understatement of the year, Cole. How are things up top?"

"It's hot, but it's damn peaceful. Kinda wish the Swarm'd show up just for somethin' to do!" 

JD shook his head and gave a soft chuckle that was lost behind the noise of the engine. "Careful what you wish for." He glanced at the digital readout on the inside of his wrist. "Look, we're not gonna make it back up by sundown. There's still a ton of stuff here to scout out and we've got supplies for a few days, so we're going to find a place to bunk down for the night."

"Roger that, we'll settle in up here. Paduk said he was gonna teach me how to play Gorasni poker." JD could practically hear Cole's big grin. "I think it's just regular poker, but with more guns and vodka and cursing." 

"You guys have fun. We'll radio with a sit-rep tomorrow, oh-seven-hundred." JD said as he nodded the group toward the big elevator they had found earlier.

"Copy that. Cole out." There was a click and then the connection went dead.

JD stepped into the elevator and cautiously tapped one of the control panels, watching as it came to life. One half of the screen was several nits dimmer than the other half, but it seemed to respond to his touch.

Gingerly he tapped an illuminated square with symbols that vaguely looked like doors. There was a brief instance of nothing, and then the large doors hissed shut, sealing them in sudden and jarring quiet. As a group they groaned in relief as they escaped the unrelenting torrent of noise.

JD rubbed at his ear with the heal of his hand as an intense high-pitched ringing replaced the engine noise. He saw Kait and his father doing the same and his ears felt like they were going to be ringing for days.

"One crucial part missing in your grand plan to have a sleepover." Fahz muttered once JD had dropped his hand away

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" He asked too loudly, then worked his jaw open and closed a few times in hope it would alleviate the ringing. 

"All our gear is on the other side of the little tunnel from hell." Fahz crossed his arms and gave JD an annoyed, expectant look.

"Right. Forgot about that." JD cringed sheepishly.

"Those sleeping quarters we found will do," Marcus said, pulling his canteen off his belt for a drink. It had been hot in the big engine room, and they were all glossy from sweat, moisture stains trickling down the necks of their shirts.

"And we saw a mess hall, maybe there's food and water?” Kait offered, finishing Marcus's thought.

JD nodded in agreement. ”Worst case scenario, we go back out and either retrieve the supplies we need and bring them back in here, or we spend the night out in the cave." 

“Yeah, I’m not crawling my way back out there.” Fahz set his mouth in a tight, stubborn frown. “Not through that bloody damn tunnel.” JD didn’t see the point in reminding him that unless they found another exit, that was exactly how they were leaving the giant bunker.

“Then let’s try the mess hall first and see what they’ve got.” He looked at the elevator’s control panel again and made the fairly safe guess that the columns of small white squares indicated floors. The last square was pulsing, so JD assumed that was their current level; bottom floor.

JD did some quick mental math to calculate how many levels had been between the recreational floor and the engine room, and tapped the corresponding button.

With a shuddering lurch and a creak of metal, the elevator began to rise.

After a few shuddering seconds, Kait gazed upward at the ceiling of the elevator. “I hope this thing works and we don’t all plummet to our deaths.” 

JD, Marcus and Fahz all turned to look at her.

“What?” She said once she realized they were staring.

“You’re just a fount of optimism, aren’t you?” Marcus muttered.

“I can’t be the only one who’s noticed just how _old_ this place feels, right?” Kait asked, looking at each of them in turn. “Old and…kind of broken?” She pointed at the half-illuminated elevator controls.

No one answered, but JD knew they had all been noticing the deteriorating state of the facility as they explored. 

A garbled sound emitted from the elevator, as if it had choked while trying to give a cheery chime. A moment later there was a hollow _thunk_ and jolt as the elevator stopped moving. 

With a hiss, the doors split open. The left door seized after a sliding a few feet, but the right door recessed all the way. The pale grey hallway lay beyond, though the floor didn’t line up with their elevator floor. 

“Old and broken.” Kait uttered as she dropped out of the elevator to the hallway floor. It wasn’t a far drop, only about two feet, but it was enough to discourage JD from using the elevator again, lest it malfunction more severely next time.

They padded off to the left and followed the hallway. They had walked about fifteen minutes around the curving walkway while in the engine room, so they had to backtrack the same distance on the upper level.

Areas of the hall had gone completely dark from failed lighting, and they each palmed their flashlights. A few doorways appeared, but the control panels were unresponsive to their touch. 

Kait tapped a panel. “I wonder if we caused a power outage when we turned the engine off?” 

“Who’s this ‘we’ you’re referring to? I didn’t turn anything off.” Fahz retorted. “I think all blame should be shoved upon our lovely Captain here.”

JD shot him an amused smile. “Oh I get it. If the mission is a total failure, it’s all my fault. But if we succeed then we’re _all_ the heroes. That right?”

“That’s how command works, innit?” Fahz smirked in the beam of JD’s flashlight. “Take all the blame and share all the triumph?”

Eventually they emerged into a lighted section, then descended into another dark patch after only twenty feet. 

When they found the familiar stairwell it was still as well-lit as before. They walked beyond it to find they had arrived at one of the laboratory levels, having overshot the level with the mess hall. 

There was still that persistent hum in the air, but it was fainter than before. And the subtle vibrations in the walls and the floor were growing weaker by the minute. JD wasn’t sure he was prepared for the facility to be _completely_ silent. Coupled with the empty halls and vacant laboratories and offices, it was only going to make the place seem eerier.

They walked down the stairs and found the mess hall, still faintly lit with the tables all lined in neat rows. The benches were all tucked in and there were no signs it had been used recently—no trays or plates left out, cutlery and cups all put away.

The galley was along one side, the room all faded steel with sinks and stacks of pots and large glossy flat surfaces they guessed were heating elements.

“Place this size, for this many people, there must be a garden or hydroponic area somewhere.” Marcus said as he opened a steel cupboard to find an assortment of tools and dishes. “To provide fresh fruit and vegetables. Maybe some protein vats too. Easier to grow their food than to preserve and store it.”

“Here!” Kait called from the back corner. She had found a storage room with rows upon rows of shelves and cupboards.

Many of the shelves were empty, but Fahz gave a shout when he found a cupboard filled with large tins. The language on the labels was the same unreadable assortment of symbols from the laboratories, but some had icons that were very helpful. JD grabbed a couple that had a minimalist fish icon and a few others that had leaves as their symbol.

“What do you reckon happened to this one?” Fahz held up a tin that had expanded outward, inflating and stretching the metal so it looked almost like a balloon. The label was torn, but JD could see half of a rudimentary cow face on the patch that had remained adhered.

“What would it take to get you to open it and try a bite?” He asked with a grin.

“Hell of a lot more than you’re worth, mate.” Fahz set the bulbous can aside and it flopped and rolled down the shelf.

There were a few cupboards with dry goods, but they had crumbled with age and packages that had once been pasta or rice had become powdery piles of dust.

Kait spotted the dried remains and looked down at a can in her hand. “Who wants to guess how old these are?” 

“Or whether they’re still edible.” JD added.

“Only one way to find out.” Setting a can down on the counter, Marcus produced his combat multitool and used the can opener to pierce the metal. He worked the tool for a few seconds until there was a gash a few inches long. Then he lifted the can and sniffed.

“So?” JD asked when his father said nothing for a few seconds.

Marcus took another few seconds to consider the can and the leaf symbol on its side. “It doesn’t smell bad.” He decided finally. “I just don’t know what it smells like.”

Marcus used his multitool to finish opening the can and lifted the lid away to show them the contents. It was filled with deep crimson cubes with juice that looked like blood. 

JD wanted Dave to come forward and test the contents, even though he was sure it was probably edible. But Marcus didn’t bother waiting and stabbed his can opener tip into one of the cubes, then popped it in his mouth and chewed. They all watched with trepidation, waiting for the older man’s verdict, or for him to keel over.

“It’s fine.” Marcus announced. Having lived through the Locust war and the rationing and scavenging that had been their way of life, Marcus had an incredible constitution and could eat just about anything without complaint. ‘Fine’ was not a comforting word when it came from his father, especially when it was referring to food. ‘Fine’ usually meant edible, but not delectable.

Warily—remembering all too well his bout of sickness after Kait’s fermented horse milk—JD plucked up one of the cubes with his fingers, the red staining his fingertips like a bleeding wound. It had a complex earthy flavour he had never experienced before, and it was vaguely sweet, but not like a fruit. After a few moments of chewing JD determined that he liked it, whatever it was.

Kait found a basin with faucet, and she tugged a nearby lever. There was a gurgling and the sound of shuddering pipes, then in stuttering spurts murky brown water shot from an overhanging spout. The flow was choppy at best, with bubbles in the pipes making the water spit and belch.

The water was a disturbing colour and stunk of sulphur, and even after letting the flow run for several minutes it didn’t clear. They still had their canteens, which weren’t full but would hold them over a little while longer.

They took their collected cans to the main hall and sat at one of the tables, the benches giving ominous creaks before settling. Kait had found some spoons and they used their multitools to pry the lids off their cans. 

There was something leafy and green that seemed to be a chard or spinach, and soft slices of a white starchy root with thin strands of purple onion. One of JD’s fish cans was filled with supple pink flesh that smelled better than it looked, and another was a white fish that was dryer and blander.

Fahz punctured a can with a bird symbol, and it hissed menacingly and spewed frothy foul liquid upwards.

“Oh fuck!” Fahz swatted the can away and it skittered down the table before falling and rolling away. The smell was _terrible_ and Fahz gave a weak cough and covered his mouth with his hand, groaning as he looked down at the splatters on his shirt.

The smell was reminiscent of rotting flesh baking in the sun, and they all groaned as the odour engulfed them. They ended up having to move to the other end of the mess hall to escape the scent, their appetites drastically reduced.

“New rule: cans get opened away from the rest of us.” Kait said, the back of her hand pressed against her mouth and nose. Fahz nodded and coughed before retreating to a corner of the room to retch.

Dave was hovering over the putrid can of bird meat, prodding the puddle it made with the biological sampler on his arm, then returned to the group when JD called him.

In the end the cans with the leafy symbol proved to be the best preserved, and while his two cans of fish seemed edible, the other cans of meat had spoiled with age. A tin with a cow icon fizzled and sprayed like the bird can, and Marcus swiftly kicked it across the room. Two more cans, while far less violent when opened, simply smelled _off_ so they were discarded.

Between the few unspoilt cans and the ration bars in their pockets, their hunger was sated and they moved on to find somewhere to sleep for the night.

They climbed the few flights of stairs to one of the residential levels and managed to find one of the larger rooms. It had one big bedroom with a wide bed, and two smaller rooms with single beds, and a living room with a bathroom. There were no decorations or signs of personal items, but the beds were neatly made with fragile white sheets.

Kait tried the taps in the bathroom and had the same sputtering response they had gotten in the mess hall. But they were lucky, and after a few minutes of grey-brown sulphuric water, the stream ran clear and the scent dissipated.

From one of his belt pouches JD produced a handful of water purification tablets and handed them out. The water wouldn’t taste great, but it would be enough to keep them hydrated until they could get back to their main supply in the rucksacks. 

He collapsed onto one of the grey sofas in the living room, sending up a cloud of dust that made him cough. Like so many of the other things they had seen, the furniture seemed old and weak. When Marcus eased down on the other end the sofa gave an uncertain creak, but held.

Sitting down for the first time in hours made him realize just how exhausted he was, and JD made no attempt to hide his big yawn. 

“We need a watch schedule.” He said drowsily, rubbing at his face with a tired hand.

“Not that anything’s gonna get us here,” Kait grumbled, suddenly looking just as tired as JD. “But yeah.”

As safe and secure as the structure seemed, it was strange territory and they couldn’t afford to get caught off guard. 

There was a crack and spark from across the room, and they turned to see Dave probing something that looked like an electrical outlet.

“Oi, Dave! Didn’t your mum ever tell you not to stick stuff in the outlets?” Fahz’s comment was ignored, and the bot adjusted himself and stuck his probe into the outlet again and gave a content chitter. Fahz looked down at the readout on his arm and gave a grunt of surprise. “Clever little man. He’s charging himself.” After a pause he said, “It’s a good thing too, poor bot was down under fifteen percent charge.”

JD shot Fahz an annoyed look. “You’re supposed to keep an eye on his charge level and let us know when he’s down that low. That’s why you have his control panel.” He waved his hand at the glowing display on Fahz’s arm.

“Didn’t see the point, seeing how we’ve got an extra power cell for’im.” 

“And where is the extra power cell?” Marcus asked, his elbow on the sofa arm and his head resting heavily against his fist.

“S’uh…it’s in my bag.” Fahz said after a moment, his eyes dropping to the floor. “In the cave.” He rubbed the back of his shaved head. “Guess I’m lucky he found a way to charge himself, aren’t I?”

JD huffed a short tired laugh. “You sure are, ‘cause you’d be the one going out to get it.” 

Fahz swallowed, looking like he was remembering the tight crawl through the claustrophobic tunnel. “Right, lesson learned.” 

“Alright, I’ve got first watch. Go get some rest.” Marcus announced, ushering them away with a swat of his hand.

Pushing himself up from the sofa was harder than JD expected. His muscles were so content to be relaxed that they ached when he tried to move.

Fahz disappeared into one of the small bedrooms, flopping onto the mattress with a _whomp_ and causing one of the bed legs to break. Kait claimed the other small room, and JD heaved himself onto the large bed in the biggest bedroom.

The mattress was some sort of foam material that might have been supportive once, but it crumpled and flattened under his weight. Thankfully the fabric held everything together well enough that he could shift and get comfortable, and it felt more like sleeping on a pile of rough sand than on a bed. But JD had slept in plenty of worse places and under worse circumstances, so it wasn’t hard to relax and doze off after a few minutes.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay in getting this one out. It took a little while to write, but I'm happy with the result.
> 
> And to those that commented and said they had hoped Kait and JD wound up in the same bed together, you read my mind! I just decided to contribute almost a whole chapter to it. ;)

JD was in a solid deep sleep when Fahz roused him for his watch, and he jerked reflexively in surprise. It took him a few seconds of blinking in the dark before he recognized the man’s silhouette in the dim light, then he coughed out an acknowledgment and moved to climb out of the big bed. 

The decaying mattress—already flattened in a body-shaped crevice where he had been laying—crumbled further under his weight and movement and JD was unprepared when the support beneath him faded away and amounted to no more than a steeply sloping hill. Fahz gave a jolting snort of laughter as JD flailed and rolled off the side of the bed and thudded to the floor. The sheet covering the old mattress tore as it snagged on his greaves, and crumbles of dried foam tumbled free and piled up on top of JD’s legs.

“Shit mate,” Fahz managed through stifled laughter, trying hard to keep his voice low so he didn’t wake Kait or Marcus. He leaned down and offered a hand to JD, who was even more disoriented than when he’d woken moments earlier.

With a heave, JD was pulled to his feet and he staggered for a brief moment, then brushed the dried foam crumbles from his pants.

“Anything I need to know?” His voice was rough and he squinted through dry eyes at Fahz.

“That big machine finally shut down.” Fahz said after the grin had faded from his face. He carefully laid his sidearm on the bed and undid his bulky combat belt.

JD paused and listened. The faint hum that had been in the air during their earlier exploration was gone, and when he pressed his palm to the wall there was no hint of vibration.

“Power’s still working, so your da thinks there must be a generator somewhere or some backup batteries. Don’t know how long the lights’ll stay on though.” The last few words were partially obscured by a tremendous yawn and there was a pop from Fahz’s rib cage as he stretched.

“Yeah,” JD agreed, trying to hold back his own yawn and failing. “Maybe, uh…” he waved his hand and the side of the bed where the disintegrating foam poured out of the fabric like sand. “Maybe don’t sleep on that side.”

Fahz tried to say something in response but it was lost to another powerful yawn and he flapped his hand at JD to wave him away.

The structure was disturbingly quiet, as JD knew it would be. He sat on the couch in the living room and breathed as quietly as possible, listening for any other noises.

Even from down the hall he could hear his father’s slow deep breaths where he slept in what had been Fahz’s original bed. Fahz himself was a snorer, and only a few minutes after he’d left him JD could hear the rhythmic sawing. Even Dave was making some faint whirring and chittering noises where he lay charging against the wall. Kait was the only one JD couldn’t hear, but he had never known her to snore. 

He milled about the room for a few minutes, getting a closer look at furniture and amenities. The bathroom was all metal and sparse, with a shower head on one side and a small toilet across from it. None of the cupboards or drawers held anything, not even a spare rag or toothbrush.

The couch and chairs didn’t look worn, but appeared aged and weak. Book shelves and cupboards lined the far side of the living room, all empty save for dust. JD distractedly wondered if anyone had ever lived in the space, or if it had been prepared but never occupied.

Based on the layout it had been meant for a family, for parents and children. But just like the rest of the big bunker, it was vacant and devoid of life.

He settled into the creaking old sofa and undid his heavy boots and greaves. Maybe it was unwise to take them off when he was supposed to be alert and ready, but JD was ready to wager a very large sum of money they would make it through the night without so much as a peep.

After all the trudging through the caves and the endless walking around the facility, taking off his boots was pure bliss. He sighed heavily and leaned back into the cushions, causing the couch frame to creak in complaint. 

And then the boredom set in.

He was supposed to be on watch for two hours, and there was nothing to do. Cleaning his Boltok was an option, but in his confusion and disorientation from falling out the bed, he’d forgotten the weapon in the large bedroom and he didn’t feel like dragging himself back in there and potentially waking Fahz up. Fahz, despite being a heavy snorer, was a light sleeper and always slept with a firearm close at hand. JD didn’t feel like getting a Talon muzzle shoved in his face just so he could retrieve his weapon.

He could try playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with Dave again, but the little bot was humming quietly against the wall, evidently still charging. 

Rooting into his pocket, JD dug out the rectangular object he had pulled from the massive engine’s control panel. It didn’t look like much, just a block of dark grey metal with a hefty weight to it. There was the groove along one edge that Kait had spotted, and JD peered into it, but there was nothing to see but more dark metal.

He smoothed the thumb of his healed hand over the surface, and it felt no different than the brushed metal of his Lancer. It didn’t even smell like anything other than that big engine room—a faint mix of metal and grease.

JD tried shaking it gently near his ear, but there was no rattle or evidence of anything moving inside. Then he thumped it lightly on the cushioned arm of the sofa and in hopes _something_ would happen, but nothing did.

Giving up, he shoved the item back in his pants pocked and huffed when he realized his fiddling had only used up six minutes. 

He scratched at his healed arm absently and then patted his thighs in a quiet rhythm and looked around the room for something to occupy himself with. JD wished there was one of those holographic displays in the room to play with. Maybe it would reveal something interesting about the facility, but mostly it would just be something distracting that would use up his time.

Tugging a boot onto his lap, JD undid the laces and began unweaving from them from the grommets. When it was done, he laced them back up in a different pattern, opting for a more complex straight-across lacing than the crisscross he’d had before.

Once he had completed both boots, he was disappointed to find the activity had only consumed twelve minutes. JD barely stifled back a frustrated groan as he flopped his head backwards onto the sofa.

He thought about going out in the hall and searching some of the nearby rooms, but he didn’t want to risk getting lost in the stretching corridor with all those identical living quarters. Plus he couldn’t stray far from the others lest something exciting _actually_ happened.

JD stared at the ceiling for a long while, feeling the urge to sleep sneak back up on him. Knowing that sitting still wouldn’t only make him more tired, he pushed off the sofa and padded around the room in his sock feet.

When silently pacing the room became too boring, he dropped to the floor and worked himself through fifty pushups. That helped raise his heart rate and hold off sleep a little while longer, and the fifty lunges he did next helped even more. 

The little fitness routine used up fifteen more minutes and JD was rapidly running out of occupying things to do. He sat back on the sofa and began pattering out the little beat on his thighs again, puffing out his cheeks to make soft popping noises with his mouth.

When Kait appeared in the hall, blearily rubbing her eyes and yawning, JD almost ran up to her and enveloped her in a tight thankful hug, grateful to suddenly have a distraction.

Instead he gave a little wave from his seat. “Hey,” he kept his voice as quiet as possible. “Did I wake you?”

Kait shook her head and nearly collapsed into the cushion beside him, pulling her legs up beneath her and resting her cheek on the back of the sofa.

“Nah. Just couldn’t sleep.” She said as quietly as he had. “I don’t like sleeping in strange places.”

“And this place definitely qualifies as strange.” JD rubbed at his forearm, the skin tingly and itchy.

She gave a silent snort. “No kidding.”

Kait shuffled in the seat and braced her elbow on the back of the sofa and resting her chin across her forearm.

“You look like you’ve had an exciting time.” She mused.

“I was going out of my mind.” Having Kait to talk with had momentarily brought much of his energy back, and the urge to sleep was stifled down. “Normally being on watch isn’t so bad, but there’s _nothing_ happening.”

“Just as well I woke up early then.” Her head had rolled so her cheek pressed against her forearm, and Kait gave him a lazy, tired smile. “To keep you entertained.”

“It’s appreciated, even if you should really try to get some rest.” JD said gently.

“Nah,” Kait flicked her hand dismissively. “I’ll be alright.” And JD knew she would be. She’d been able to fight and persevere despite bare minutes of sleep combined with horrid visions and nightmares. Five hours of sleep was indulgent by comparison, but it didn’t stop him from wishing she’d been able to sleep longer. “You on the other hand…” 

JD realized he’d been yawning again and he tried to shove the exhaustion back down, rubbing at his eyes with the heels of his hands.

“Yeah,” he managed as he tried to force another yawn back. His arm itched again and he scratched at it roughly. “Yesterday really took it out of—"

“Woah, hey stop.” Kait reached forward suddenly, catching his left wrist in both her hands. 

JD blinked at her and looked down at the grasp on his hand. Then he glanced to his other, newly re-skinned arm and saw what she was attempting to stop.

In the back of his mind, as he’d gone about his activities, he’d noticed the occasional tingle and itch in his healed arm, and had scratched at it without a second thought. The itching had grown more persistent in the last half hour, but not enough to really bother him.

But once he looked at it he noted the pale supple skin of his arm was a mass of streaking red welts.

“Oh.” He said simply, twisting the limb over to study it closer. The welts were puffy and angry and there were a few lines of thin red blood where he’d broken the new skin. His arm itched maddeningly now that he wasn’t scratching it and he wanted nothing more than to pull his hand from Kait’s hold and scratch furiously.

“Where’s your goo?” Kait asked, taking one hand off his wrist to gingerly cradle his opposite forearm in her palm. Her hand was cool on his skin, soothing the welts under her fingers.

“I didn’t bring any with me.” He murmured, his fingers twitching with the need to scratch. “It’s in my pack out in the cave. Didn’t think I’d need it.”

“When was the last time you applied any?” Kait’s eyes scanned over his arm, studying the irritated skin warily.

“Uh…” 

“It was yesterday, wasn’t it? At the nomad camp.” She said, her eyes darting up to his. It was the hard look she had inherited from Reyna and JD fought back the urge to shrink away from her.

“Yeah.”

“And how often did the doctor tell you to apply it?” Her voice was firm and demanding, and JD felt weirdly small in her presence. This was different than the fiery anger he’d seen in her before, her eyes were cool and determined and her eyebrows knitted with concern.

“Uh…three times a day?” He swallowed. “No, five times a day. Because it’s dry.”

“I think I can see why they told you to do that.” She said, smoothing a hand over the top of his forearm in a gesture that was meant to be soothing but it only served to tease the maddeningly itchy welts. “You’re all dried out.”

JD pulled his lips into a line and winced with the burning need to scratch. 

“Don’t move. I think I’ve got something to help.” Kait pushed up from the sofa and disappeared back into the little bedroom she had claimed. 

Instead of caving and scratching at his irritated skin, JD rubbed at it with his open hand, hope it would provide some relief. It didn’t.

Kait reappeared a moment later with her combat belt and popped open the clasp on the largest of the pouches. She removed the field medical kit and rummaged through the assortment of items.

There was a small bottle of antiseptic spray that she spritzed over the welts that had started to bleed. A sharp stinging radiated up his arm and JD sucked a breath through his teeth as he gritted them.

Next was a tiny bottle of something vaguely pink in colour, and JD recognized it as a topical anesthetic spray. It was meant to help reduce the pain of burns and minor wounds, but he supposed it would work just as well on minor skin irritation. It left broad white foaming bands over his skin, but about ten seconds later the urge to itch became slightly less overwhelming.

After letting the anesthetic spray dry on his skin, the white foam fading to a clear sheen, Kait produced a packet of beige cream that she squeezed onto his arm.

“It’s not your stinky medical ointment, but it’s the best we’ve got.” She explained as her fingers began massaging the antibacterial ointment into his skin. It was a similar consistency to the goop he’d been given by his doctor, leaving a thick sticky residue behind.

Kait spread the ointment over the stop of his forearm first, where the worst of the welts were. Then she carefully coaxed him to turn his arm forward and she worked at the tender underside where the red blotchy skin was underlined by the faint blue of his veins.

He had a vague memory of her doing something similar for him a few nights earlier, after he’d had too much alcohol and fermented milk. Despite his upset stomach, JD had liked the feel of her fingers on his new sensitive arm, even if her calluses scratched a little. 

JD watched her face as she worked, having been unable to the last time. Kait’s eyes were razor sharp as she moved her hands over his arm, diligently inspecting the scratches and the areas he had drawn blood. Beneath the look of careful determination and concern, JD could make out the glint of worry in her eyes and immediately felt a swell of guilt for being the one who put it there.

“I’m sorry.” He said softly.

Kait made a small noise of confusion. “For what?” Her eyes glanced up briefly to his then darted back down again to refocus on her task.

“For being an ass who has a hard time taking care of himself.” 

There was a quick exhalation of breath that sounded like a softened laugh. “What would you do without me?” She asked with a smile.

“I tried doing that, being without you,” the smile faded away and she glanced up at him again. “It didn’t go well.”

JD thought back on that dark period when he had isolated himself from Del and Kait, remembering how he had been filled with so much anger and regret and guilt. Some of it had been directed at the people around him, but most of it had been aimed at himself. Del and Kait and his dad and even Fahz, they hadn’t deserved any that, and—JD was slowly coming to accept—he hadn’t deserved it either. Not all of it anyway.

There were things he had done wrong, risks he had taken and choices he had made, and not all of them worked out for the better. The consequences had been hard, life-altering, and he would be living with some of those consequences for the rest of this life.

But he had been able to learn from a lot of them too, to focus on improving himself and his relationships and his choices. He took fewer risks, endangered fewer lives, and he learned to appreciate the people he had around him more. JD refused to let what had happened between him and Kait and Del happen again.

Just looking at Kait, JD knew she understood. They’d always been pretty good at communicating with just a look, reading each others minds. Except when they hadn’t.

“Look on the bright side,” Kait said after a moment, breaking their eye contact. She was still methodically working the salve into his skin. “We’ve got Fahz now.”

JD felt his face split into a grin. “Lucky us.”

To prevent the salve from rubbing off and JD from scratching again, Kait wrapped his entire forearm in winding gauze and secured it with a couple of butterfly pins. 

“There. Now leave that on until we can get back out to the cave and put the real goo on.” Kait ordered, tidying up her medical kit and stuffing it back in the belt pouch.

The bandage made him look like he had suffered another grievous injury, but the itching had almost completely faded away. JD flex his fist a few times and felt the tight wrapping stretch against his skin.

“Thanks.” He murmured. “It feels a lot better.” 

JD had angled his body towards her while she worked on his arm, his left leg pulled up onto the sofa so he could sit sideways on the seat and face her. When Kait finished stuffing her medical kit back into her belt and rested the belt on the floor, she moved to mirror his position, her knee bumping his as she brought it up onto the seat.

“You’re gonna need to buzz it again.” She said after a moment of looking at him, tapping the side of her head.

JD ran his palm of his hand over his scalp, feeling the hair bristling against his skin. It had been about a week since his last run with the clippers and it always amazed him how quickly his hair seemed to grow. If he hadn’t succumbed to mild food poisoning and moderate drunkenness the night before setting off to Vasgar, he would have buzzed his head then. But he hadn’t and now he was sporting a dirty blonde head of fuzz.

“It’s growing in better now,” Kait reached up and touched his jaw to turn him so she could inspect the right side of his head and face. JD didn’t complain and he tried to watch her from the corner of his eye as she smoothed her fingertips over the hair above his ear. 

When he’d woken from his coma months ago his hair had been singed off after the Hammer blast, and what hadn’t been burned away had been shaved so the doctors could tend to his wounds. When he had been discharged from the hospital, JD had tried letting his hair grow back so he could return to some semblance of normal. But the burns and scars left bald patches that most wouldn’t notice, but only served as a painful reminder of that day in Settlement Two. So he’d run the clippers over his scalp so he couldn’t see where the hair wasn’t growing back when he looked in the mirror.

It was a similar yet contrary logic that had led him to growing a beard. Winding bands of knotted scars, pale pink and white, had run down the line of his right jaw. A lot of it had been healed and grafted, but his eyes kept drawing to the spots anytime he saw his reflection. Eager to be rid of the reminder of his mistakes and their consequences, he’d let his beard grow out to gradually cover over the scars and hide them from his view. 

The beard didn’t help to cover the prominent scar that ran down his forehead and across his cheek, but the scar wasn’t as raw or as mottled as the burns along the side of his jaw and head. From what the doctors had told him, the long harsh line had likely been caused by flying shrapnel, not the searing blaze of the Hammer of Dawn, and knowing that made looking at the scar a little easier. He could pretend he’d gotten in a firefight or grenade blast. Somewhere other than Settlement Two.

“You should let it grow out again.” Kait said softly, her thumb running over the fading scars on the side of his head. Some of the nerves had been burned away so he couldn’t always feel her touch, the sensation coming and going as she moved her fingers.

“You think?” He winced a little at the hesitance in his voice.

“Yeah.” Kait’s voice was full of a gentle reassurance she reserved for a select few individuals. “I miss your scruffy bedhead.” 

JD immediately remembered her joyous mocking when he’d fallen asleep in a tree hide on one of their hunting excursions from Fort Umson. He’d woken to find his cheek imprinted with a tree bark pattern and syrupy sap clumped in his hair. It had taken some cursing and some of Oscar’s harshest alcohol to comb the mess out of his hair, and Kait had laughed at him the whole time.

“What about this?” He stroked the chin of his beard, already knowing he’d been coerced and would let his hair grow out.

Kait narrowed her eyes and studied his face, using her hand to twist his head back and forth. When she paused briefly to examine the right side of his face again JD knew she had spotted the place where the scars ran beneath his beard.

“That’s up to you,” She said finally. “If you keep it, you run the risk of looking way too much like your dad.” JD’s lips twisted in sneer of distaste at the thought. He always thought he took after his mother’s side of the family when it came to his looks, though that was mainly because of his fair hair and lighter complexion. The thought of looking _hard_ and old like his dad was not pleasant.

“‘Kay,” JD said slowly. “And if I shave it?” He’d run the risk of seeing those scars again, he knew that. But maybe it was time to try facing them again.

“You’ll suffer from a bad case of baby face.” Kait stated flatly.

“Baby face?” He scoffed, half-insulted and half-amused. 

“The beard makes you look older, more…rugged. Grizzled.” _More like your dad_ , JD’s mind finished. “And without it you’ll be all young and…and baby-faced again.”

“The whole time Del and I spent with the Outsiders, you thought I had a baby face?” He gave her an incredulous half-smile.

“At the time, no. Now that I’ve seen the beard, yes.”

“Right. What a fantastic choice you’ve left me with.” JD muttered. “Look like my dad, the angriest hermit on Sera, or look like an infant.” He chuckled to himself, shaking his head.

“Keep the beard for now,” Kait offered. “And if you grow your hair in and you start looking weird, I’ll let you know.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

Kait laughed softly and patted his cheek before turning away from and stretching her bent leg outward. JD followed suit and draped his arm over the back of the sofa when she leaned into him, her head easing back against his shoulder. They settled into a comfortable silence, simply enjoying the other’s company in the quiet.

JD glanced at the digital timepiece on the inside of his wrist and saw he had a half hour before Kait was due to take over his watch shift. Knowing that, he relaxed a little further back into the sofa and let his head tilt back to stare up at the ceiling, hearing Kait’s steady even breaths and Fahz’s persistent snoring from down the hall.

A few seconds later he jolted when Kait’s hand tapped against his side and she pushed lightly against his arm.

“JD,” she whispered. “You’re squishing me.”

Somehow he had moved from his relaxed posture against the rear cushions, to leaning heavily on Kait, his head tucked comfortably against her shoulder. JD lifted his head and stared down at her, his vision strangely blurred. 

She chuckled at his miffed expression and gave him a little nudge with her shoulder to remind him still hadn’t moved his weight off her. 

“You fell asleep.”

JD glanced at time again and realized it had been almost forty-five minutes, not the few seconds it had felt like to him. It was Kait’s shift now, and if he hadn’t wound up leaning so heavily against her she probably wouldn’t have woken him.

“Oh, sorry.” He said blearily, rubbing his face and sitting back up straight. JD thought of getting up and finding a bed to lay down in, but remembering his earlier tumble discouraged the idea. 

As if she had sensed his reluctance, Kait scooted down to one end of the sofa. 

“Here.” She patted her lap and JD took her up on the invitation without so much as a second thought.

He laid down on his side and pulled his feet up onto the cushions, resting his head on Kait’s lap. JD felt her hand on his head, brushing soothingly over his short hair. The other arm draped over his side so her hand dangled over his sternum. 

Slipping quickly back asleep JD’s last thought was to grasp her hand in his and tangle their fingers together.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has been leaving such kind comments! I'm genuinely so happy that you are enjoying this fic, and it just makes me want to write more and more! 
> 
> 🥰🥰🥰

JD was having a very pleasant sleep when something jabbed him in the ribs. He grunted and swatted his hand at the offending poker, but it didn’t relent.

“Leave him alone, Fahz.” He heard Kait say, a laugh at the edge of her voice.

“Rise and shine, oh captain my cap’n.” That smarmy accented voice penetrated JD’s sleepy haze and he growled in irritation, turning and pressing his face further into the warm pillow beneath his cheek.

The jabbing finger returned and JD flinched and let out a long heavy breath, finally daring to crack one eye open. Fahz grinned down at him, the light reflecting off his glasses so JD couldn’t see his eyes. He was leaning over the back of the sofa, still nudging his JD’s ribs with a finger.

“So is this why you didn’t come back to bed with me last night?” Fahz put on a pout. “And I was so looking forward to being the little spoon for once.” 

Despite himself, JD laughed and batted Fahz’s hand away with a scoffing “Fuck off.”

He heaved himself up and belatedly remembered the warm pillow he’d been using was, in fact, Kait’s lap. He turned to look at her, rubbing roughly at the cheek that had been pressed into her combat pants. 

“Morning,” he said, smiling at her with his sleep-blurred eyes.

“You drooled on me.” She said with false irritation.

JD stopped rubbing his face and looked down at Kait’s lap. Sure enough, there was a damp spot on her pant leg where his face had been laying.

“Hah, sorry.” He chuckled.

“So what’s the plan?” Marcus was as gruff as usual, sitting in a single chair across the room. His firearm was partially dismantled and he was piecing it back together, having just cleaned it. 

JD realized he was the last one awake, somehow remaining oblivious to his father’s rummaging around with his Talon and Fahz’s trudging through the rooms. He was either more tired than he anticipated, or so comfortable he hadn’t been easily roused. JD suspected it was the latter.

“Well, we’ve got a whole lot more bunker to explore, but not a lot of supplies left on us.” He said, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees, twining his fingers together.

“We were only supposed to figure out the source of that seismic activity and scout the place,” Marcus said, sliding the last component of his Talon back together with a satisfying click. “And we’ve done that, so I say we head back to the surface. If Baird wants to know more, he can come down here himself.”

“Which he most definitely will.” JD agreed, then looked to Kait and Fahz. “What do you guys want to do?”

Fahz snorted. “Don’t know about you, mate, but I’m bloody starving, and I don’t feel like scavenging a bunch of half-rotten cans for my next meal.”

“You’re always starving,” Kait muttered, rolling her eyes.

“I’m a growing lad with a healthy appetite. Nothin’ wrong with that.”

Kait gave an exasperated shake of her head. “I agree with Marcus. This place is bigger than we bargained for and we’ve done our job. I say we head home.” 

“Alright, then we pack up and head back to our Grindlifts. I’ll let Cole know we’re on our way.” JD affirmed, nodding and stepping away to press his fingers to his tac-com.

After he’d reported back in with Cole, who was as energetic and boisterous as ever, JD returned to the room to find everyone on their feet and waiting for him. Dave was floating between them and Fahz was checking something on the bot’s rear carapace.

“We good to go?” JD eyed the open panel on Dave’s back end.

“Yup, just making sure the little man’s all juiced up.”

“And you know what you’re doing?” JD asked warily.

“It’s just a bloody tin can. How hard can it—“ Something sparked and Fahz yelped, jumping back and shaking his hand furiously. Dave let out an alarmed beep and snapped the panel shut, spinning to give Fahz a robotic glare, his little pointed optics angled downward angrily. “Alright, alright.” Fahz tried to push the bot away. “Sorry. Sensitive little bugger, aren’t you?”

Dave gave another garbled chirp that sounded more like a disgruntled bark, then zipped towards the door.

“And what did we learn about sticking our fingers where they don’t belong?” JD chided. Fahz was still shaking his hand, cursing to himself.

“Bastard’s got some bite, I’ll give’im that.” Fahz examine his fingertips where Dave had left a series of angry red marks.

JD smirked and shoved Fahz forward after the bot. “Oh you’ll live. Come on, let’s head back to your little tunnel of terror.”

“Oh fuck me, I forgot about that.” Fahz groaned, dragging his boots.

Dave led the way back up the stairwell, and just before they stepped out into the hall they had first arrived in, JD stopped to look up. There was a small gap between the railings that granted him a small window into the flights above them, and they stretched on and on before disappearing in the dark. 

They had only scratched the surface of the bunker, and there was still so much left to explore. JD wished they could stay and check it out, but that was a job for Baird and his bots and it wasn’t a priority. As interesting as the place was, the Swarm were still out there and they had a Queen to kill.

“We sure this is the only way out?” Fahz sulked after they had arrived at their entry point. He stared pitifully at the hole they had crawled through just the day before. 

“It’s what we’ve got.” JD confirmed, not unkindly. “Dave, lead the way.”

Dave tilted his whole body forward and then back again in a nod, then slowly fluttered into the tiny tunnel. Kait followed a moment later, her flashlight clutched in her teeth again.

When Fahz didn’t immediately follow, JD grasped his shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Fahz was rigid with tension, his jaw clenching and unclenching and his face twisting angrily.

“ _Fuck!_ ” He yelled suddenly, the sound thundering down the hall. And then he climbed into the hole, more loud expletives echoing out behind him.

“I’m gonna get an earful from him later, I know it.” JD muttered, shaking his head.

“Yep.” Marcus agreed, dropping to his his knees and squeezing into the small passageway behind Fahz.

JD took one last look up and down the halls, still wishing he could stay and explore, and plunged himself into the cramped darkness.

The crawl through the tunnel was just as straining had it been the first time. JD’s arms were tired and aching within minutes as he heaved himself along, and the bandage Kait had wrapped around his arm kept snagging on outcropping bolts or rough edges of metal. Eventually it caught and pulled free and JD didn’t have the space to reach over with his other hand to unsnag it, so he just had to let it unwind from his arm and leave it behind in the passageway.

He knew the end was near when Fahz’s torrent of cursing abruptly went silent, indicating the man had pulled himself free into the open space of the glowing cave. JD caught sight of his father’s boots disappearing ahead of him, and then faint blue light shone through.

Getting out of the hole was a bit tricky unless he sought to tear his clothing and skin on the jagged edges left around the big puncture in the metal. JD ended up half-falling head first out of the tunnel, Marcus grabbing his arm to help prevent a face-plant into the rocky rubble.

JD pulled himself upright and wobbled a little on the uneven terrain, sweating from all the exertion. Kait had a swath of dust and dirt down her entire left side, a sure sign that—as the first one out of the tunnel and with no one to help her out—she had ended up falling to the ground.

Their gear was exactly where they had left it, which was a huge reassurance. None of them had intended to leave it behind so long, thinking their journey into the bunker would be a short one. JD’s armour had a sheen of dust on it but was otherwise untouched, so he pulled it from its scarecrow mounting and slipped the heavy plates on over his head.

He was damp with sweat and desperately needing a shower, and having the armour on wasn’t going to help with either of those problems, but he felt good and safe when the thick weight wrapped around his torso. There was an onboard cooling system—really just a glorified set of fans to help air move around under the armour and try to keep the occupant dry—and it whirred to life when he buckled up the straps. It didn’t do much to actually cool him off, but it was a far sight better than nothing. 

The blue lights on his armour flashed on a few moments later, and JD turned to see the others just about ready to go. Fahz was the only one left and his hands were shaking so badly he couldn’t get the buckles to snap into place. Marcus stepped over to Fahz and took over the task without a word, clicking the straps together and tightening them up. After he was done, Marcus gave Fahz a nod and a hard pat on the arm, a gesture of reassurance amongst Gears.

With their packs on their backs and their rifles slung about their shoulders, the group climbed down the mountain of rubble. Fahz was leading, taking the steps slow and careful. If his hands had been shaking so much that he couldn’t do up his own armour, then he was probably just as rickety on his feet as well. No one rushed him, happy to take their time.

Maybe JD would tease him about his claustrophobia later, if Fahz got particularly annoying, but seeing how deeply the experience had affected him made it difficult for JD to find much humour.

JD was the last one down the rubble hillside, and let himself slide along the loose stones for the final few feet. Back on solid ground, they all decided on a break to dig out the rations packs out of their bags and eat their first meal of the day.

Fahz was usually eager to see what everyone had for their meals and ready to trade options, but he ate his eggs and sausage from the cold foil package without a peep. 

JD looked down at his packet of lentil stew and ham, then glanced over to Kait to see what she had gotten. She caught his look at held up barbecued chicken with beans and potatoes, and he turned his meal so she could read the label. Kait nodded and they wordlessly exchanged meals.

Marcus never asked to swap rations and would just eat whatever was in the package. He usually didn’t even bother looking at the label first; just tear open the top and dig in, hot or cold. If someone wanted to trade with him, he would hand off his packet without complaint, regardless of whatever meal he ended up with in return. After living through the Locust War and eating whatever was available, JD was convinced it had left his father with no tastebuds.

Gradually Fahz returned to his normal self, food appearing to be his great mollifier. By the time JD had finished his pouch of barbecued chicken, Fahz was reaching over and rummaging through his ration pack. 

“Can I ‘ave this?” He asked, holding up a white foil parcel that resembled a small brick. JD recognized it as the hard dry sponge the COG tried to pass of as bread, and he quickly let Fahz take it. A moment later Kait threw a similar packet at Fahz and it whizzed by JD’s face, narrowly missing a collision with his temple.

JD was content to chew on rubbery sweet thing—absurdly labelled as a pastry—and admire the glowing blue stalactites and the way the metal wall of the bunker glimmered in their light. His free hand touched the unknown rectangular object in his pocket, making sure it was still there and still intact.

“Hey,” Kait said when he’d finished eating. “Goo time.” She tapped her right forearm and gave him an expectant look he didn’t dare defy.

The itchy welts on his arm had faded from furious red to an irritated pink, the lines he had scratched into them still visible but no longer swollen.

Following Kait’s command, JD rummaged through his bag and found the jar of medicinal ointment. The sharp chemical smell permeated the air as he rubbed the salve into his skin and he ignored Fahz’s complaints.

With everyone fed and satiated, they packed up their gear and began the long trek back towards their Grindlifts. Once they were there, they’d hop back inside the noisy tin cans and Cole could initiate the retrieval process. 

The original Grindlifts from the Locust War had been designed as one-use pods with a single goal: get Gears inside the Hollow as fast as possible. Baird had modified their batch of Grindlifts to enable retrieval, meaning Gears could be sent down, the pods pulled back to the surface and reloaded, and then more Gears or supplies sent down, all in a matter of minutes. Baird had built them for their expedition beneath the Vasgar capital, but JD suspected they’d make their way into combat deployment eventually.

“So how long do you think it’ll take before Baird is hauling ass to get down here?” JD asked with a grin, leading the group into the tunnel at the end of the grand cavern.

“If Cole relayed our initial report back to him, then Baird’s already on his way.” Marcus said with just the faintest hint of exasperation in his voice. They all knew Baird was about to become an unstoppable force of curiosity, fuelled by thick black coffee and savage sarcasm.

JD turned to walk backwards, smirking back at the other three. “Before we left, did anyone stop to ask if Jinn knew we were coming out here?” He mused.

“Should I be mentally preparing myself for another tongue-lashing from our great and mighty leader?” Fahz sighed. “We’re only going to get away with this about ten more times before she’s _really_ going to arrest us, you know.”

As they were all well aware by now, Jinn was more bark than actual bite. She knew Marcus was practically untouchable, given his status as one of the great heroes of the Locust War. And JD was the son of Jinn’s late best friend and former mentor, making Jinn—as much as JD didn’t like to think about it—almost like an aunt to him. 

Once he had rejoined the COG and brought his hero father with him, JD had quickly learned that there was little he and Marcus couldn’t get away with, and it was a perk they flexed as often as possible. Jinn would fume and threaten and yell, but she never _actually_ did anything to them. As angry as she would get, Jinn still kept both of them close at hand—her golden boys, as Fahz had put it. 

Kait and Fahz, through their association with JD and Marcus, were benefactors of their immunity as well. They’d had a close call in Baird’s lab when Jinn had tried to arrest Kait, but that attempt had been quashed promptly and decisively. With the attack on New Ephyra immediately after, their brief rebellion against Jinn had been, if not forgotten, then perhaps well-heeded.

JD laughed lightly, spinning on his heels so he could continue walking forward, rounding a bend in the tunnel. He looked back over his shoulder and added, “Don’t worry about Jinn, I’ll—“

His chest plate collided with something that clanged noisily, and JD came to an abrupt halt, rocking back on his heels. He let out a brief uttering note of surprise as he whirled his face frontwards to see what he had run into.

Feeling his breakfast turn to an ice cold lump in his stomach, JD’s vision panned upwards to stare into the snarling maw of a Swarm Drone.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aside from writing this little fic, I'm also busy drawing (gotta use that art degree somehow, right?). Some of that includes GoW fanart, and I'm starting to post it on a new instagram account if anyone wants to check it out. It's a mishmash of just mindless doodles, some old figure drawings, portraits, and fanart. 
> 
> The account is @index_card_doodles on Instagram. 😄

The only thing that saved JD’s life was the fact that the Drone was just as surprised to see him as he was to see it. The bend in the tunnel had meant neither one had seen the other coming, and JD had been too busy chatting with the others to hear the sound of the creature’s approach. The Drone had to have heard them coming, but obviously hadn’t expected to round a corner and have a human walk straight into its chest.

So JD stood there for a moment that seemed to stretch on forever, staring up at a mouthful of teeth. The beady black eyes of the Drone stared down, its head tilted slightly.

Then the muzzle and barrel of a Gnasher filled the right side of his vision and JD’s senses returned in a rush. He saw the weapon appear in place over his shoulder, the barrel a scant inch from his ear, and he dropped away from it, twisting and curling left as the shotgun fired into the Drone’s face.

The sound was deafening as he ducked away from the blast. An instant later he came whirling back up with his Lancer aimed and the safety off. Fahz had Swarm blood dripping off his armour and Gnasher as he backed away from the twitching remains of the Drone, pulling the shotgun back against his shoulder. 

“Thanks,” JD managed, eyeing down the length of his Lancer and waiting for signs of movement.

“Your situational awareness, mate. It’s shit.” Fahz spat humourlessly. They stood side by side with their weapons raised, taking careful but hurried steps backwards.

“Yeah, I noticed.” JD ground out, his ears still ringing from the shock of the shotgun blast. “Back up, we have to get out of this tunnel.”

Kait and Marcus were pressed to each side of the passageway, their rifles trained and covering JD and Fahz’s retreat. The faint sound of Juvies yapping and barking could be heard trickling down the tunnel, growing louder with each second. Fahz’s shotgun fire would have alerted every Juvie, Drone and Scion in the tunnels.

“Oh this is just _perfect_.” JD hissed, pausing to cover Kait and his father as they turned to catch up. In pairs, leapfrogged their way backwards, taking turns providing cover and running back the way they came.

There was a shimmer of light ahead of him, and JD saw Dave activate his camouflage and disappear. The sounds of the Juvies became louder and more frenzied, their calls blending together into a continuous bleating. 

His first instinct was to reach for a grenade and toss it into the pack as they barrelled through the tunnel, but he quickly dismissed the idea. It would do them no good to have the cave come crashing down on their heads.

When they reached the mouth of the tunnel they split to take position on either side of the entrance. JD knelt to the ground and Fahz hovered above him, both of them using the passage wall as cover and aiming towards the approaching noise.

The glowing blue light of the fungus wasn’t as bright as he’d like for combat, but it had the advantage of letting the lights of their armour blend into their surroundings. It meant that when the first of the Juvies appeared in the distance, they didn’t immediately see them and they had an element of surprise.

JD held up a hand and signalled to the others to hold their fire. He squinted down his Lancer, watching the wet pale skin of the leaping creatures glimmer in the dark. When he felt they were close enough—maybe thirty feet away—JD dropped his hand and the blue light was over-shone by the strobing of flashing rifle fire.

The Juvies screamed and howled as bullets punctured their flesh and tore the limbs from their bodies, but it was hard to hear over the torrent of noise generated by their rifles. In the tunnel and cavern the sound of their gunshots reverberated and echoed and melded into a horribly loud deluge of noise that made it a struggle to hear anything else.

There was maybe a dozen of the creatures in total, and they spasmed and crumpled to the dirt floor, puddles of dark blood pooling beneath them. One managed to climb over its fallen siblings, pouncing off the walls in a zigzag pattern that made it hard to shoot. It shrieked and leapt for Marcus, but was brought to an abrupt end when Kait lunged forwards and planted her combat knife deep in the side of its sinewy neck. She bared her teeth and twisted the blade, and the Juvie gave a pitiful whimper and a gurgle as its blood poured out its mouth. Then there was a bony pop and it went limp.

The dead Juvie dropped to the floor and Kait braced her foot on its head and heaved on the knife. The serrated edge made a disturbing noise as the metal rubbed against the skull and spine of the creature when she pulled it free, and blood poured freely from the gored slit it left behind. Kait flicked the knife to try and shed the bulk of the blood.

There were more noises coming from down the tunnel, more grunts and calls than the barking of the Juvies. There were Drones coming, maybe Scions as well, but they were slower than the nimbler Juvies.

“Cole,” JD barked, pressing his fingers to his earpiece. “We’ve got company down here. Enemy numbers unknown, but keep an eye out up there.”

“Roger!” Came the reply a second later. “You just say the word and the Cole Train’s in a Grindlift and on his way, baby!”

“Negative. We need you to protect the rig. Anything happens to it and we’re stranded down here.” There was another quick confirmation from his uncle, then JD turned his attention back to the others.

Kait was studying her the blood on her knife and Marcus was shifting the dead Juvie’s arm with his boot, scowling down at it. Fahz remained where he was, his rifle still pointed down the tunnel.

“Look at this.” Kait held out the knife, but JD didn’t need to see it. He could already see what she and Marcus had noticed.

The Juvies, like most of the other swarm, were usually a sickly ivory colour with an orange-red undertone that was reminiscent of the pods that birthed them. Sometimes they had patches of darker scales, if they’d been out of their pods for a while. This one had the fresh slick skin of a newly hatched Juvie, but instead of the orange-red colouring, it was purple, almost blue in several places. 

And what JD had assumed and been the reflections of the glowing fungus on its skin, were actually whorls of patchy luminescent radiating along its limbs and sides. There were even faint symmetrical stripes running up over the top of its head, then trickling away down its spine.

JD glanced to Kait’s knife and saw the subtle blue shimmer in the thick blood. Then he turned and walked to the other Juvie bodies piled up in the narrow tunnel. They were all sporting the same faintly glowing skin and the glimmering blood.

“So what are we thinking? New Swarm variant?” He asked, frowning and turning to walk back to them. The echos of the approaching Drones were still faded and distant, but JD could hear the urgency in their guttural cries. "Because that’s the last thing we need right now.”

Dave de-cloaked beside them and hovered down close to the dead Juvie. They watched as he prodded the pooling blood with his biological sampler, then let out a low whistling beep.

Marcus took up the guard at the mouth of the tunnel while Fahz brought up Dave’s control panel on his arm.

“Not real sure what all these words mean, but I think the little man’s saying our dead friend here’s got the same glowy stuff in ‘im as the mushrooms.” Fahz held up his arm so the others could see the readouts. “Otherwise he’s just a regular ol’cuddly Juvie.”

Kait stepped toward Fahz and studied the panel for a moment. “Must have picked it up in these tunnels.”

“You think they eat the mushrooms?” JD wondered aloud, looking up at the glowing stalactites above their heads.

“Wouldn’t be the strangest thing we’ve seen them do.” Kait shrugged. “And there’s not much else down here to eat.”

“Except us.” Said Fahz grimly.

“Dave,” pointing at the dead creature, JD turned to the robot. “Take some samples. If this is some new Swarm thing we need to worry about, then we’d better be prepared.”

Dave gave a little bobbing nod and used his sampling arm to repeatedly prod the Juvie. Fahz’s arm panel flickered and flashed as the analysis data was transmitted to him, but they didn’t bother reading through it. 

“We’re going to have company in a minute.” Marcus called back, his eyes never moving from the passage.

“What’s the plan?” Kait asked as they scurried back to their positions, Dave shimmering and going invisible again.

“Kill anything that moves that isn’t human. Dave, is there another way out of here?” JD yelled back over his shoulder. 

From somewhere behind him there was a sad little beep that JD took as a no. “Well, then we’re getting out of here the hard way.”

A new wave of Juvies appeared first, screaming and shrieking with excitement and a primal fury. Some ran on all fours, galloping ahead of the others. They were easily picked off with precise shots, their bodies tumbling and rolling as momentum carried them forward. The creatures that ran in behind them leapt over the bodies and paid them no mind.

Longer sustained bursts felled the ones that remained, cutting them down before they got too close to be a threat. It took a moment for the sounds of their gunshots to fade away, and then they heard the growling and grunting of the Drones.

They were smarter than the Juvies, huddling further back in the tunnel and around a curve where they could be sheltered from the gunfire. At JD’s signal Delta moved forward again in pairs, hunkering close to the walls where the glowing fungus could help hide the lights of their armour.

The bravest of the Drones roared and came sprinting at them, teeth bared and carapace gleaming in light. Together they loaded it full of lead and it staggered and fell to the ground with a wet, meaty _splat_.

JD noted the faint gleam in the dead Drone’s skin as they stepped over it. The blue incandescence wasn’t strong enough to see by; more like the weak light cast by the glow-in-the-dark markings inside Condors and Vultures to highlight emergency exits. It made picking their targets easy, the blue patches moving in the distance easy to distinguish even if they were the same colour as the fungus.

Once the Drones understood that they had been spotted, they began charging. JD might have been worried by their numbers if any of them were carrying rifles. Instead they were all relying on claws and teeth to inflict damage, which meant they posed no threat at a distance. 

“They’re not wearing armour,” said Kait once the last enemy had died. “Look at them, it’s like they just crawled out of the nest.” Her boot toe nudged at the glossy pale flesh of a Drone’s shoulder, where heavy thick scales would grow in to offer protection.

“Just makes ‘em easier to kill.” Fahz took no interest in the dead creatures, marching on down the tunnel to scout ahead.

They moved on, measuring the volume of their voices carefully and listening to the sounds of life up ahead. JD hadn’t noticed it on their journey in, but the big engine of the bunker had provided a constant hum that covered up a lot of the quieter noises. He could hear the dripping of water, the gentle trickle of pebbles down stone, and the low faint rumbles of Swarm in the distance.

They managed to make it through the second of the three large caverns without encountering another enemy. The twisting tunnels and stone walls made it difficult to determine where the sounds of Swarm were coming from, the echos bouncing around reaching from all the wrong directions.

It was the first massive cavern—the one where they had had to climb up and over the gargantuan fallen stalactite—where they spotted the largest gathering of the creatures. With the others, JD crouched behind a thick stalagmite and watched as Juvies squawked and bickered like disgruntled birds, scratching at the cave walls and swallowing down mouthfuls of the glowing mushrooms.

Kait saw them chewing on the fungus too, giving JD’s arm a nudge before pointing at them. He nodded in acknowledgement, his lips set in a thin line.

And despite being a larger group, the Swarm seemed disorganized and more than a little disjointed, like a pack of willful children running around without an adult. He couldn’t see any Scions, only Juvies and Drones, and off in one corner was a Snatcher lazing on its belly. JD had never seen one of the big beasts resting before and it looked like a gangly hound, its long rear legs tucked beneath itself while the front legs crossed daintily in front of it. Its head, with the mouth full of teeth and tongues, laid contently on its crossed forelimbs.

Like the others, the Snatcher had taken on the blue glow of the cave’s fungus. They couldn’t see its underbelly from their position, but JD could make out the blue gleam it cast on the walls around it.

After a quick assessment of the numbers and their position, JD jerked his hand up and motioned for them to split up. He and his father would flank the Drones around to the left, while Fahz and Kait moved straight ahead and closer.

JD lead his father through the forest of stalagmites, using their big trunks as cover and darting between them when the coast was clear. When they had their positions, JD leaned out from cover, sighted up his first Drone, and squeezed the trigger.

The gunshot unleashed mayhem as the rest of Delta followed suit and began laying down fire. The Juvies screamed and scampered in all directions, and the Drones dove for cover. The blue Snatcher lunged to its claw feet and leapt off out of sight, though JD could hear its talons scraping on the stone.

Despite their muzzle flashes giving away their positions, the Swarm ran wildly. It gave them too many targets to take out efficiently, but they were easy kills. None of them had weapons of their own, so it was by far the easiest fight JD had seen in ages. Actually, calling it a fight at all felt like a gross over exageration.

The Juvies would yelp and bark and jump forwards, only to be cut down with a few well-placed bursts of Lancer fire. Occasionally there was a crack of a Gnasher and a Juvie that managed to get close to Kait or Fahz would explode in a spray of blue-tinged blood.

The Drones fell much the same way, but they took a bit more fire power. They were a bit smarter as well, trying to flank them once they had determined where the shots were coming from. A group of them crouched behind cover, waiting for an opening to appear in the gunfire, and JD pressed the secondary trigger on his Lancer. The rocket-propelled grenade detonated above the heads of the Drones, making them all duck.

Just when the first Drone poked his head up to see if it was clear, a thick stalactite fell from the ceiling and crushed him and his brethren.

JD vaulted out from his cover and ran forward to flush a trio of Drones from their cover, and they were swiftly gunned down by Marcus. A fourth Drone roared and snarled and slammed its meaty shoulder into his chest, knocking him back into a stalagmite. The impact was jarring, but JD recovered in time to narrowly miss a swipe of claws at his head. 

The Drone was too close to pull his Lancer up and fire, but JD was able to duck away from another strike and unload three heavy Boltok rounds into the creature’s chest. Blood spurted from its back as the bullets shot clean through. Even with the lethal shots the Drone managed one more lunge, hurling itself and tackling JD to the ground. Its teeth gnashed and tried to bite at his neck, but JD managed to barely hold it off with a forearm braced across its bloodied chest.

Had the Drone not been critically injured, it might have actually succeeded in mauling him. But the blood was swiftly draining out of its body and it took its strength with it. The attempts to claw and chew on him grew weaker with each try, until the Drone gave one last rattling breath and died. 

The creature slumped atop him and JD grunted and pushed it away. His father was there a moment later, offering him a hand up. JD took it and grimaced when the Drone’s blood poured off his armour to run in dark rivulets down his combat pants.

“Oh that’s gonna take forever to get out.” He muttered with a sneer, pulling his Lancer back up to his shoulder.

“We’ve still got a Snatcher over here!” Kait yelled, shooting at the big beast from behind cover.

The Snatcher paced back and forth angrily, lunging forward to stab at one of them with its dangerous clawed legs. Fahz rolled away from an attack and unloaded three Gnasher rounds at the limb. The chitin cracked and ruptured and the Snatcher shrieked and stumbled, limping backwards and away from them.

It used a stalagmite to hide from their rifle fire, so JD ducked and ran to find a better angle on the target. The Snatcher saw him coming and it roared and coiled its slender glowing tail before cracking it forward like a whip. 

JD had just enough sense to recognize the motion and half spun and half fell to the floor. The Snatcher’s spear-like quill whistled by his chest plate, missing his armour by mere inches. It left a bright after-image in his vision and JD felt streak of pain in his right arm. He glanced down to see a long scratch in the new supple skin.

“Oh come on!” He yelled angrily, emptying a full clip into the Snatcher. “The doc is gonna kill me for that!” It was a fairly shallow wound that welled and dripped with blood, but was far from life threatening. The thought that his arm was blemished only a couple weeks after being healed was more irritating than the pain.

The Lancer clicked as it ran dry, and JD ducked behind cover to quickly reload. The others kept up the shooting, forcing the Snatcher to squeal and back away. It was leaving a steady stream of blood, blue pools and rivers that shone in the darkness.

The cries the beast let out as its sensitive underbelly tore open howled in JD’s ears, and he aimed his reloaded rifle and let off controlled bursts into the cracked chitin and sopping soft flesh.

It took half of his magazine—plus whatever the others were firing into it—before the Snatcher gave one last scream and its legs began to fail. It stumbled at first, ramming hard into a small stalagmite that crumpled under its weight, then overcorrected its wobbling stance and careened off in the other direction. It made it a handful of shaky steps before collapsing to the ground and dying.

The silence in the cavern was shocking at first, and the four of them quickly and carefully moved forward to ensure there were no additional enemies hiding behind cover.

JD led the group, his rifle raised and ready. He stepped over bodies of Drones and Juvies, his boots tracking through their blood and leaving faintly glowing prints. Marcus, Kait and Fahz each called out as they confirmed different sections of the cavern were clear.

He approached the fallen Snatcher and gave it a kick with his boot to ensure it was dead. The shredded luminescent underbelly jiggled and two tentacles tumbled out of the pouch, but otherwise it remained motionless.

JD turned back to the others and began walking back to them, his rifle lowering from his shoulder. 

Then the floor twisted beneath his feet and the hard slab of stone erupted upwards and crashed into his side. He let out a choked grunt and writhed as the wind was knocked from his lungs, even through his heavy armour.

“James!” His heard his father call, followed by the urgent slap of rubber soles on stone.

JD twisted and tried to get his arms braced against the stone, the cold wet rock pressing against his cheek.

Finally, after shifting and pushing and panting, JD managed to get his elbow braced against the rock and forced it away. The cave spun in his vision and he could see the lights of his father’s armour in the distance moving quickly closer. 

Behind the familiar sight of armour lights new shapes emerged in the fungal glow, sliding down the walls and slithering over the floor. They were silent as they moved, creeping swiftly towards the others, all gleaming teeth and radiant eyes.

JD tried to get his voice to work, but his throat was stiff and sluggish. He made what panicked noises he could, trying desperately to warn them as the long pale limbs stretched out from the shadows, dragging disfigured forms into the light of the stalactites.

Malicious mouthfuls of teeth grinned at him and he could feel his heart pounding in his ears and his lungs tighten. Marcus’s voice was next to him, trying to ask him something, but JD’s eyes were on Kait and the too-long fingers that reached for her from the darkness.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick little note! We're shifting to Kait's perspective for this chapter.

Kait gritted her teeth as the muzzle of her rifle edged around the side of stalagmite, searching for any Swarm that remained. There was only a dead naked Drone, its small eyes staring blankly up at the cavern roof.

Part of her almost felt bad for the creatures they had killed, so unaware and defenceless deep in these tunnels. They all looked so new, young and fresh from the pods and nests. They'd barely been born and Delta had shown up and mowed them all down.

But then she remembered the horror wrought on Sera and the thousands of people who lay dead, and any sense of guilt washed quickly away. She thought of her village, of Oscar and her mother, and of Del. 

Kait sneered down at the dead Drone and turned away.

Fahz was clearing another section, his Gnasher clutched tightly in his hands. He glanced over at her and she nodded, notifying him that she had finished her sweep. A few more seconds of poking around in the darkness and his shotgun lowered and he returned the nod.

Together they turned back toward Marcus, who was already striding back from the low shadowed corner of the cavern. His Lancer had been returned to its magnetic mount on his back, so he hadn’t found any other creatures hiding in the darkness either.

JD kicked at the fallen Snatcher but it remained still and lifeless in a puddle of its own luminescent blood.

That was an intriguing development, the glowing Swarm. Kait was more than a little curious to know what was causing the steady blue light in the mushrooms. Her curiosity had grown even more once it was clear the glowing effect had carried over to the creatures that ingested the fungus. She would look forward to reading the mushroom and tissue sample reports once they got the data back to New Ephyra and the team of scientists there. Baird would probably get a kick out of it, if he wasn’t too distracted by the giant bunker.

The walls of the caves echoed every faint sound now that the brief fight was over. There was the soft drip of water and the steady casual _plat plat plat_ of JD’s rubber soles on the stone floor.

And when those soles twisted on the wet rock and he crumpled to the ground with a choked grunt, that sound echoed too.

Kait's gut clenched as she saw JD's body on the ground, and her waning adrenaline spiked again. Ice ran through her veins as she watched him writhing and panting and making horrible pained noises.

“James!” Marcus yelled, seeing how JD wriggled uselessly on the stone. The old man ran to his son, his scarred face lined with that scowling worry Kait saw on rare occasions.

Then Kait forced herself to take a breath and push her emotions back and let the logical part of her mind focus on the situation. Every fibre of her body wanted to run to JD check on him, but she needed to think of the bigger picture, of the group and their situation.

JD wasn't dead, and while he was in distress it didn't look like he was dying. And Marcus was with him, so he had protection and someone to administer first aid. If he needed help, Marcus would tell them. 

Knowing JD was being attended to helped calm the immediate swell of panic, and Kait felt it fade away to a gnawing, gut churning knot in her stomach.

Kait took another breath and realized her rifle was raised again and she was already searching for targets. All those months of drills and fighting with the COG had apparently paid off, honing her instincts so her body was ready to fight even if her mind wasn't.

JD had dropped so suddenly that it was almost like he'd been shot. The thought threatened to bring the panic back, but Kait stamped it down swiftly by remembering that there had been no gunshot and the Swarm Drones they had encountered so far were unarmed.

Fahz edged close so they could stood back to back, his shotgun up and his eyes searching the dark. He might have been a mouthy asshole, but he knew when to shut up and look out for the team, and as well-honed as Kait's instincts appeared to be, Fahz's were better. He could react faster to situational changes than anyone, save for maybe Marcus. Kait was suddenly and profoundly grateful to have him watching her back.

When no threat immediately appeared, Fahz's hand rose and he motioned to one side of the cave, his eyes never faltering from the dark shadows. Kait followed his instruction wordlessly, taking quiet and careful steps to avoid unnecessary noise.

Drone and Juvie blood shone in dim shimmering pools, and when she stepped through it Kait left faint bootprints behind her.

They had already done a thorough search of the area after their firefight, but there were so many places to hide that it was not impossible something had escaped their notice.

JD’s heavy armour scraped over the stone as he tried and failed to lift himself up. He was panting and grunting and making noises that didn’t make any sense, and Marcus was kneeling beside him, his hands on his shoulders to try and keep him still.

The old Gear was talking in quiet hushed tones that Kait couldn't make out, but whatever Marcus was saying to his son evidently wasn't helping. Marcus hadn’t yelled for help or even cursed aloud, which was usually a good sign he had the situation under control.

She searched between every stalagmite and behind every boulder, but all she found were glowing dead Swarm bodies. None of them gave even so much as a residual twitch as she passed, and she glanced across to Fahz who shook his head and gave a small shrug.

Only when she was absolutely certain they weren't under attack did Kait dare to glance at JD, and she didn't like what she saw.

His face moved and twisted, panic taking over his expression as the frantic grunts from his throat tried to form words. It was hard to see in the dim light, but it was very clear JD was staring at her, or rather _through_ her.

She quickly scanned his body, looking for signs of grievous injury, and saw nothing to cause any concern. No bullet or puncture wounds, no bite marks, and he hadn’t hit his head on anything as far as she remembered.

Kait had never seen JD so afraid before, so torn up with terror and open anxiety. Even in those horrifying few seconds when he’d trying to outrun the rampant Hammer of Dawn, or held the clutches of the Swarm Queen, JD hadn’t looked afraid. He’d been grimly determined and unshakeably courageous and never afraid.

Fahz was back beside her, and his presence and even focus was a strange comfort. He was steadily scanning their surroundings, never once distracted by JD’s convulsing and spasmodic crys. He had noticed where JD's shaky vision was focused and stepped in that direction, even though Kait had just cleared the same area moments before.

Kait followed close behind, grimacing at the way the shadows and the blue fungus and the glistening wet walls created a sort of optical illusion, seeing strange shapes appear where there was nothing.

"Kait!" JD yelled, her name coming out fully formed and clear. It was mixed with such raw emotion that it made her stop and whirl back to him.

He was reaching for her, one hand held out while the other was trying so hard to find purchase on the rough stone. Marcus shot her a confused and worried glance, still trying to hold JD's shoulders so he couldn't get up and injure himself.

Any control she had left vaporized in an instant when she saw how anguished JD was, and Kait's rifle lowered and she hurried to him. Her armoured knees hit the stone with a _thunk_ as she knelt beside him and clutched his outstretched hand. 

His eyes were wide and his pupils were too big, even for their dark environment. Having her beside him didn't ease his panic and he held her hand in a death grip. JD stared up at her, shaking furiously, and his gaze kept shifting from her face to somewhere behind her.

"T-they're coming..." he stuttered out through clenched teeth, his voice a few notes higher than normal. 

"Who?" Kait asked, glancing back and seeing only Fahz standing in the distance. "JD, there's nothing here."

"Oh god..." JD groaned, trying hard to push backwards and away but Marcus still had a hold of him. He tugged on Kait's hand to try and pull her with him. "Kait you have t-t-to run!" He hissed, his too-wide eyes pleading up at her.

"JD, we're okay, we're safe." She tried to keep her voice calm and reassuring, holding his clenching hand in both of his. "We killed all the Swarm, remember?"

Kait's eyes darted to Marcus and they shared a concerned look.

With a sharp tug JD pulled his hand from hers and scrambled to grip the Boltok on his thigh. Marcus saw the movement and lunged an arm forward to stop his son, but he was too slow. 

Whatever was affecting JD made his movements jerky and erratic and hard to pin down. In a flash he had his pistol unholstered and aimed shakily at a forest of small stalagmites. Six shots thundered in rapid succession, and Fahz yelped and jumped aside as a bullet ricocheted off a fungus-encrusted stone near him.

The sound of the big gunshots so close made Kait's ears ring, and it took her few seconds to hear the rapid clicks as JD kept pulling the trigger of his empty pistol.

Marcus winced a little, his ears ringing as well, and placed a hand over the top of the Boltok, gently pushing it down. 

“Alright, James, you got’em.” A trembling frightened noise was still stuttering out of JD's mouth as his father forced him to lower the pistol and then carefully pried it from his quivering fingers. 

Kait stared at him, then back into the darkness to see what he had been shooting at. Just like before, there was nothing to be seen.

"What the bloody _fuck_ , Fenix?" Fahz snapped, stumbling back into view from behind a stalagmite. His question didn't get a response.

"Okay," Kait said softly, turning back to JD. He stared up at her, his eyes still round and his pupils still too large. "Okay, we're safe now." She took his hand in hers again, holding it up so she could press her cheek to the back of his hand. 

Her other hand laid itself over his forearm where she intended to rub reassuringly, but something wet dampened her palm and she pulled it away with a frown.

Blood coated her hand, black and glistening in the blue light. It ran in slow drips down JD's arm before splattering on the stone floor. It's source was a long deep scratch in JD's pale skin and it was smeared in a faintly glowing liquid, like mucus or slime. Oozing from the wound, the blood swirled with the blue liquid before sliding down his skin.

Marcus eyed his son’s bleeding arm. "Hngh, shit." He said, scowling at the wound.

"K-Kait please..." JD uttered weakly. He was sweating profusely, droplets of sweat running down his temples. "Please, y-you need to r-un."

"It's okay," she clutched his hand tightly to distract him while Marcus released his hold on JD's shoulders. The older man eased back on his haunches to rummage through his belt pouches for his medical kit. "JD, I need you to listen to me." She squeezed his hand hard when he began fidgeting and staring fearfully behind her again. "JD, I think you're seeing things."

"No, no no no..." He repeated, and kept repeating. He was trying to back away again, pulling on her hand again as though he was yank her to safety.

"JD," she cradled his jaw in her hand and forced him to look at her. "JD, we're okay. We're safe, all of us."

“B-but--" His eyes were watery in the blue light, his eyebrows raised in a painfully innocent expression. 

"Dave!" Marcus barked, making JD flinch in surprise. The bot shimmered into view and jetted towards them while Marcus took a wad of fresh gauze and quickly and carefully wiped away a patch of the blue streak that lined JD's weeping scratch. Then he shoved it at the hovering bot. 

Dave required no instruction and nimbly took the gauze. He eased back to use his sampling tool while Marcus set to work cleaning JD's wound.

“Just focus on me, alright?” She held his hand and kept his arm steady while Marcus wiped away the blue slime. When JD’s vision strayed to the darkness beyond, Kait gave his hand a hard squeeze that was probably painful. “No.” She whispered. “Just me. Just look at me.”

Marcus cleared away the slimy glowing film that rimmed the bloody gash in JD’s arm and started methodically wiping up the trickling blood.

JD’s trembling remained constant, though the hold he had on her hand grew weaker. He kept trying to look behind her, or off to the side, or up to the ceiling, and every time Kait clenched his hand tight to focus his attention back on her. A few times she gripped him so hard she had to dig her fingernails into his skin, but it was better than him panicking again.

Marcus doused JD’s injury in a antiseptic solution that wash away the sticky blood and sterilized the area, and it made JD try to pull away from them again. He panted and let out a pained cry from between clenched teeth, tugging on the hold they both had on him.

When he finally relaxed again, fear still written over his face, he watched and shook as his father began padding the sterilized wound with clean gauze.

That seemed to distract JD and Kait was grateful for that. He stared fixedly at his father's hands while they worked, then JD's eyes swung up to look at his father's face.

"Dad," he said in a small shaky voice. 

"Yeah, James," Marcus said back, his voice softer that Kait expected. The older man didn’t look up from his task.

“Where’s mom?” Kait almost didn't see it, but Marcus's hands faltered as they dug through the medical kit again.

Marcus’s jaw clenched and his face angled away from JD for a moment, his expression lost to shadow. 

When the old man spoke his voice was tightly controlled, but not harsh. “She…she’s not here right now, James.” He began wrapping JD's arm in tight gauze. The blood soaked through the first few layers to contrast against the white of the bandage. 

JD hissed a little and tried to pull his arm away, but Marcus and Kait held on tight and wouldn’t let him back away. 

Dave gave a buzz and a beep, then looked to Fahz. 

Fahz blinked dumbly at the bot for a few moments, then let out a quiet "Right!" and looked at the panel on his arm.

"What's it say?" Kait asked, keeping her voice tight so she didn't sound as worried as she felt.

"It's uh...s'uh..." Fahz cocked his head and stared at the panel, then thought better of it. He quickly undid the straps and removed it from his arm to hand to Kait. "'Ere. You know this stuff better than me."

Kait flicked through the readouts and frowned.

"Crap," the word came out in an exasperated sigh. "Fucking Snatcher got him."

Marcus scowled at the news and grunted. ”I've never seen Snatcher venom have this kind of effect.” 

"We've never seen blue glowing Snatchers before." Kait shot back, her focus still on Dave's control panel. JD’s glistening eyes darted back and forth between them, his body quivering faintly and his free hand flexing its fingers against the stone floor. He was still uttering out fearful noises, but they were becoming softer and less frequent, which Kait hoped was a good sign.

"Wait," Fahz held up a hand. "Snatchers have venom?"

"In their quills, yeah." She said, distractedly. "It's not deadly. Just a mild paralytic agent that makes their victims easier to catch.”

"Right...but JD doesn't look paralyzed." Said Fahz.

“No, he doesn’t.” Marcus agreed, tying off the bandage on JD’s arm.

"Yeah, there's..." Kait swiped through another screen on the panel. “I’m seeing a different chemical cocktail. Dave hasn’t flagged anything as lethal, but I have no idea what most of this is.”

“Well, I’ll take the good news where I can get it.” The old Gear muttered, then looked down at JD. “James, do you think you can walk?”

JD’s eyes darted up to Marcus. He swallowed and seemed to consider for a moment, then shook his head. “No, I want to stay here. Mom said Uncle Baird’s coming over and he’s bringing me a new toy.” 

“The hell…?” Fahz uttered out behind them.

Marcus and Kait shared another look and Kait’s stomach sank.

“JD, do you know where we are?” She asked, speaking softly and slowly.

JD looked up at her, squinting a little as he studied her face. He looked confused and lost for a moment. “W-who are you?” Then he looked back to his father for guidance, completely missing the stricken expression on Kait’s face.

Marcus seemed just as surprised but recovered faster than she did. “Do you remember where we were this morning?” He asked carefully.

“At home. You made me get up early to help fix the truck.” JD had a wary look on his face, sensing the worry. 

“ _Shit._ ” Marcus growled with a short shake of his head.

“Is he thinking he’s a little kid again?” Fahz asked bluntly, making JD jerk in surprise and look up at him.

“Who’s that? Why’s he talking funny?” 

“Oi. Pot and kettle, mate.” Scoffed Fahz, a small amused smirk on his face despite the much more serious situation.

Kait had Dave’s control panel back up and was looking through the readouts again. “It has to be a side effect of the venom. Hallucinations, memory loss.” She ran a hand over her hair and let out a frustrated huff. “Maybe whatever’s in the mushrooms that makes the Swarm glow like that is messing with their biochemistry. Maybe it made the Snatcher venom into some sort of hallucinogen or…or something. I don’t know.”

“But you said it wasn’t lethal, right?” Marcus asked, that hard expression not showing the concern he must have surely been feeling.

“Why do the stars look so strange.” JD murmured, his head tilting back to stare up at the rock ceiling and the stalactites.

“Dave didn’t report anything lethal. A hell of a lot of chemicals I don’t recognize, but nothing lethal.” She shrugged, trying not to look as helpless as she felt. Kait had a basic understand biology and chemistry, but she could only make assumptions and guesses at what was affecting JD. 

“I need you to get up, James.” Marcus rose to his feet and offered a hand to JD. 

JD blinked at the offered hand, then took it and let his father bodily pull him to his feet. As soon as he was upright, he swayed and crumpled with an alarmed noise that almost sounded like a squeak. Marcus cursed again and managed to catch his son before he hit the floor and hurt himself any further.

“My legs feel weird,” there was a anxious note in JD’s voice as he spoke. Then he held his hands up, slowly waving them back and forth in front of his face. “My fingers are numb.”

“We’re not going anywhere, not with him like this.” Marcus gave a heavy sigh and stood up straight again once JD was settled back on the ground. Kait knew he was right. JD was too heavy to realistically carry out of the cave, and if they ran into more Swarm he would be a huge liability. “We should hunker down here and wait until he’s recovered.”

“Yeah,” Kait breathed, pinching the bridge of her noise and closing her eyes for a moment. “Yeah.” She said more firmly. “Fahz, find us a place to make camp.”

Fahz was already on it, fading off into the dark with his Gnasher to explore some of the recesses of the cavern. 

“Where’s mom?” JD asked again. “I want mom.” He was gripping at Marcus’s pant leg, that fearful look reappearing.

Marcus shut his eyes for a moment, a pained expression appearing on his face. Kait could only imagine what was going through his mind.

“I know this probably won’t make sense, but you’re sick.” She said kneeling beside him, hoping to offer a distraction and give Marcus a moment. It was weird, seeing that familiar face staring up at her with no recognition. It hurt in a way she didn’t want to think about. “You were…you were stung. And it’s making you sick.”

JD frowned and squinted like he was thinking real hard about something. “Ice.” He said after a moment. “When I got stung by a bee, mom put ice on it.”

Kait sighed. “Well we don’t have ice right now, but you’re going to rest and we’re going to see if you feel better in a little bit.”

“Found a good spot.” Fahz announced as he reappeared, cutting off any reply JD had.

At Marcus’s instruction, he and Fahz placed themselves on either side of JD and hoisted him to his feet. They each threw an arm over their shoulders and Fahz pointed with his free hand into the darkness. JD tried to get his feet under him, but his legs were so weak they were almost limp and he ended up dragging his boots along the ground.

Kait followed behind, trying not the let the dread take hold. She’d already lost so many people in her life, she didn’t know what she’d do if she lost JD too. Just the thought made fear rise in her chest, and she tried to focus on the positive.

She rubbed her hands over her face and tried to ignore just how much they were shaking. Then Kait forced a neutral expression back onto her face and followed the others.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hoo boy did this one take me a while. There were a few different iterations of this chapter that got scrapped before I settled on its current form. Given what's happening with JD, it was way too easy to fall into the realm of 'completely ridiculous' and I had to pull myself back from that edge more than once. Not to say I didn't keep some of the absurd in this chapter, or the next one. Gotta have a few good giggles, right?
> 
> Read on, and thanks for sticking with me!

Fahz had found a small alcove in the side of the big cavern. Several fat stalagmites covered the entrance so it wasn’t visible from the open space, but there was a skinny gap they could squeeze through to reach the area beyond.

It was perfect to hide in, in case more Swarm appeared. Someone could position themselves at the gap between the stalagmites and air their rifle outwards and still remain fairly shrouded.

Marcus and Fahz lowered JD to the ground so he could sit against the stone wall. He was shivering in the dark, looking up at both of them with open trepidation. The alcove was barely bigger than one of the tiny officer quarters back in New Ephyra, and it was so narrow there wasn’t enough to room to lay down across its width. 

“W-what’s going on?” JD asked, his speech not quite as clear as it ought to have been. “Da-dad?”

Marcus was more bothered by the situation than he showed, Kait knew. She’d spent enough time around surly old men—her father, her uncle when he was sober, countless other members of her village—to read him well enough for that. There were a lot of things his service in the COG had prepared him for, and the sudden drugged and hallucinating state of his son wasn’t one of them.

It would have been easier if the Snatcher venom had just rendered JD unconscious. It was one thing to deal with an injured or incapacitated teammate, but another thing entirely to cope with said teammate seeing monsters where there were none, not to mention the sad yearning for his long-dead mother.

Fahz had apparently decided that he wasn’t the one to deal with JD, and Kait thought that was fine. Who knew what the foul-mouthed Gear would say or do to JD in is current state, or how JD would respond. It was quite the show of maturity and respect as well, because only a few months ago Kait knew Fahz would have revelled in the prospect of tormenting JD while he hallucinated. Marcus’s presence probably aided in Fahz’s discouragement, because no one made him clam up and behave quite like Marcus could. 

Stomping over to the mouth of the alcove, Fahz took up guard and stayed out of the way.

Marcus kneeled beside his son and scowled, his jaw clenching and unclenching. Then he pulled open the cargo pocket on JD’s thigh and fished out the metal rectangle they had retrieved from the bunker. Kait saw JD’s brow twitch a little as he looked at the object, and she wondered if that was a moment of recognition or confusion.

Shoving the object into his own pocket, Marcus caught the questioning look Kait shot him. “Last thing we need is the damn thing breaking. Baird’d never let us hear the end of it.”

JD began murmuring out questions, his voice slurred and faint. Speech impairment was a common side effect of Snatcher venom, along with sluggish and weak movement. Depending on the dose it could also render the victim unconscious, but JD didn’t seem all that sleepy.

Kait tried to wrack her memory to recall the other side effects of Snatcher venom, but she was drawing a blank. Tugging her mouth to one side, she decided to take a quick assessment of JD’s vitals to try and get a handle on the situation.

She pulled off a glove and pressed her palm to his forehead, making JD jerk away in surprise. His movements were uncoordinated and with his heavy armour on he almost toppled sideways. Kait grabbed his bicep to haul him upright and tried feeling his temperature again. JD made a groan of protest, still trying to edge away from her.

“It’s alright, James.” Marcus said, his voice rumbling out of the darkness. JD shivered and eyed his father warily, then darted his eyes back to Kait. It made something deep in her chest ache and throb, seeing him look at her like that.

He looked so innocent and scared and helpless, and she prayed to a deity she didn’t believe in that JD would suddenly come back to his senses, shake off the effects of the venom, and give her that comforting, smug grin.

When she pressed her palm to JD’s forehead again, he didn’t try to flinch away. He did cringe and press his head back against the stone as far as he could, but otherwise he held still and let her gauge his temperature.

“He’s running a fever.” She said for Marcus’s benefit. Kait moved her hand from JD’s face to press against the side of his neck just above his armour, and again he cringed away from her. “Yeah, a little warm.” She muttered again.

Then she gently grasped his arm and pulled it into her lap. His muscles were tense and she could tell he wanted to yank his hand away, but with another nod from his father JD let her work. Kait pressed her fingers into the underside of his wrist and counted the beats of his pulse.

“Heart rate’s high.” She said with a heavy sigh. “JD, how do you feel?” Gently, she let go of his wrist and he pulled it back to cradle it against his chest.

“M’cold. A-and…and dizzy.” The last word faded a little, as though it was too much effort to sustain the sound.

“Let’s get this armour off him.” Marcus said, coaxing JD’s arm up so he could undo the straps holding the plates tight. Unlike his reaction to Kait, JD didn’t shy away from Marcus’s movements and instead stared at his father before moving his eyes to gaze down at the navy blue metal that covered his body.

A panicked, distressed noise burst out of him and he kicked and squirmed. He swatted violently at his chest plate, panting and his eyes too wide.

"James," Marcus grasped one of the flailing arms before it swung in his direction. JD didn't look at him and kept his frantic eyes on the armour covering his body. "James!" He barked suddenly, his voice harsh and loud in the small space. 

JD's limbs spasmed in surprise and he froze, looking up at his father fearfully. Kait couldn't blame JD for the response, she had neared jumped out of her skin at Marcus's sharp yell, and Fahz had spun towards them with his Gnasher in hand.

"You're alright," the old Gear's voice softened again once he had JD's attention. "Whatever you're seeing, it's not there."

"B-b-b-bugs." JD uttered out, still swiping at his chest plate with his free hand, the motion urgent but far less frantic.

Kait reached out and captured the hand in hers, making his big eyes whirl to fix on her. 

"There's nothing there, I promise. We won't let anything get you." It did little to calm him, and his arm kept tugging against her grasp as his eyes strayed back to his dark armour.

Kait wished she could read his mind so she knew what he was thinking at that moment. Normally they could communicate with just a look and read each others expressions and body language, rarely needing to share words. But there was so much about the way he acted that seemed foreign to her. It was like trying to read another language.

When she moved forward to undo the armour straps on his side, JD didn’t try to shy away. He was too focused on his armour to notice her working, occasionally tugging at her grip and kicking with his legs. If he had been at full strength Kait knew she would have been overpowered, but he was so weak it took a worryingly small amount of effort to keep her hold on him.

With Marcus, Kait heaved the plates up and off JD’s body and let the armour sit in the corner of the alcove. Immediately he shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, and Kait wondered if taking the armour off was the best idea. At the very least, it seemed to calm him down and he stopped squirming so much.

Marcus opened his medical kit and retrieved a small package and tore it open. Kait saw something glint and rumple between his hands, and recognized the thin metallic emergency blanket they all kept as part of their survival gear. 

With a quick flap of his arms, Marcus had the blanket unfurled and draped it over JD’s trembling body. There was a faint rattle, and Kait realized JD’s teeth were chattering. She leaned forward and pulled the canteen from his utility belt before helping to tighten and tuck the blanket around him.

Kait rooted through her own medical kit to find a small plastic container with pills. 

“Here, these will help with the fever.” Shaking two white round pills into her palm, she offered them to JD.

Then she hesitated and almost pulled her hand back. Would they have an adverse effect when mixed with the Snatcher venom? They were the most basic painkiller and fever reducer, derived from the bark of a common tree used for medicinal purposes for years. In her village they’d stew the bark in water or broth, then drink it to help with anything from hangovers to broken limbs. She had never seen anyone have a bad reaction, no matter what other drugs or stimulants were in their system. Though that had been tree bark, and not the processed and enhanced medicine she was offering JD.

She mulled it for a few more seconds, then decided it would likely be fine. 

JD was still reluctant to do anything without first looking at his father, and he hesitantly let Kait drop the pills into his palm after Marcus nodded approvingly. A moment after they were in his hand JD gave a whine if discomfort and dropped them to the floor. He shook his hand furiously, as if trying to shake something off, and he began wriggling and kicking again.

“Woah, woah! Hey, it’s okay!” Kait said quickly, catching his hand and pressing their palms together. His breathing was rushed and anxious and he reached for his father.

Marcus rested a firm hand on his son’s shoulder and the response was immediate. JD’s head jerked suddenly to look at his father and he pulled his hand from Kait’s grasp to grip desperately at Marcus’s forearm. JD’s breathing was heavy, but even as his fingers dug into his father’s arm he began to calm.

“You good?” Marcus said after a moment, fixing his son with an even stare. Kait would have to learn the secret to that look, because JD swallowed and nodded shakily up at his father.

The grizzled Gear shot her a quick look and jerked his head in a curt nod before focusing back on his son. Kait hastily shook out two more of the white pills, and instead of giving them to JD she handed them to Marcus when he held out a hand.

He pinched one between his thumb and index finger and held it up in front of JD’s face. 

“You’re going to swallow this, alright?” It was phrased as a question but it came out more as a command.

“B-but—“ Wide blue eyes stared fearfully at the white pill.

“No. It’s medicine and you need it. So take it.” 

“Dad—“ JD moaned in protest.

“Either you take it, or I hold you down and Kait shoves the damned thing down your throat, got it?” Marcus’s voice took on the raw angry edge that meant he wasn't going to back down.

Whatever it was that was scaring him—whatever that white pill looked like in his distorted vision—JD obviously thought it was less scary than his scowling father.

His hand was shaky and uncoordinated, but he managed to pull the pill from his father’s hand and slip it into his mouth. A whimper of complaint edged out of JD’s throat but another look from his father silenced him. Marcus presented him with the second pill a moment later and JD took it and put it in his mouth without sound.

Kait unscrewed the cap of JD’s canteen and held it out to him, and when he gripped it his arm sagged, lacking the strength and steadiness he needed to hold it to his mouth. She inched closer and held the canteen up to his lips. JD swallowed a small mouthful of water, then coughed hoarsely after he tried to take another drink. Water dribbled down his beard as he sputtered, and he clumsily wiped at his face.

“Sorry,” he said weakly, his fingers scratching distractedly at the chin of his beard like he was surprised to find it there. 

“It’s okay,” Kait assured him with a soft smile. “You should drink more.” She held the canteen up again but JD shook his head and pulled away slightly.

“No.” JD shook his head, suddenly looking horrified at the sight of the canteen. His lips pulled back from his teeth in a sneer of disgust, making Kait give the rugged green bottle a quizzical look. "Put th'cap back on." He said, tucking his arm back beneath the emergency blanket and pulling the metallic sheet up to his eyes. "Please."

Kait didn't question the request and quickly screwed the top back onto the canteen, though she did quirk an eyebrow at Marcus. The old man gave a grunt and shrugged. JD's eyes stayed fixed on the canteen as she set it aside, the blanket crinkling as he shivered.

"Is there something wrong with it?" She asked when he kept watching the canteen like it was going to pounce on him.

“It's full of slugs.” he said, matter-of-factly in his slurring speech. 

"You're seeing things. Hallucinating. Do you know that?" Asked Kait, the exasperated question slipping out before she could stop herself. She regretted it instantly, because the last thing JD needed was to be snapped at.

“There’re crystal fish in th’ceiling.” JD whispered loudly, clearly not too concerned with her tone. The canteen had been forgotten and now he was staring fixedly at the mushroom-speckled cavern roof, his teeth beginning to chatter again.

"Yeah, I kind of figured you'd say something like that." She sighed defeatedly, dropping her head into her hands to try and rub the sudden exhaustion from her face.

“I’m gonna radio Cole,” Marcus announced with a huff, pushing to his feet. “Let him know we won’t be ready for extraction for a while.”

He walked off before Kait could say anything, heading towards Fahz’s position and keeping his back to her and JD. JD’s eyes followed his father as he moved away, looking a little alarmed that he had been left alone with Kait.

Kait sighed again and moved to sit beside JD, the back of her armour clanging against the stone wall.

“This is one giant mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, isn’t it?” She asked with a small sardonic laugh. JD’s gaze wandered slowly to her hair and widened at the sight of it. Kait frowned at the look on his face. ”What do you s—"

“S-s-s-salamanders.” The word caught momentarily as he shook from the chills. “With p-purple tongues.”

"Fantastic." Kait muttered under her breath. Just the mention of something in her hair, even though she logically knew there was nothing there, made her scalp feel itchy and she reached up to comb her fingers through the strands.

"D-don't!" JD jerked and tried to reach for her hand, but he tangled himself under the blanket and teetered onto his side. He flailed and groaned as the blanket slipped off his body, shivering furiously. 

"Woah, careful." Kait tried to help him up, finding him to be heavy and sticky with sweat. She managed to get him seated upright again and fought to untangle the blanket from his legs.

She had him keep his heels on the bottom of the blanket to anchor it in place, then made sure the sheet was wrapped tightly around his trembling arms and shoulders. The excess few inches of blanket bundled around his neck and Kait cinched it like a scarf to keep as much warm air trapped around his body as possible. 

"Better?"

“Th'salamanders are p-poisonous. Don't t-touch them!” And she supposed that in his venom-addled mind that made sense. After a moment of him staring at her head intensely, his focus waned and he shook beneath the blanket. “I’m still c-cold.” 

"Those pills will kick in soon, and then you'll probably feel too hot."

Even after Marcus finished talking to Cole over the radio, he didn’t return to join them. Instead he leaned against the rock wall with his arms crossed, looking outwards through the slim gaps between the stalagmites. Kait couldn’t help but notice how he kept JD out of his line of sight.

There was something about seeing JD injured or sick that bothered Marcus more than he was willing to talk about. When JD had been in a coma after the Hammer's malfunction in Settlement Two, Marcus had never gone to see him in the hospital and Kait had always wondered why. Despite the the rough relationship the two had, it was obvious Marcus still cared about his son. He just expressed it in ways that irked JD and make little sense to Kait.

“Where’s m’mom?” The weak question made a hard lump form in her chest, and she looked to JD to see him staring blearily back at her.

“She—“ and stopped. It was too easy to blurt out the truth, and Kait knew the truth wasn’t what JD needed at that moment. It took her a moment swallow and reconsider her words. “She’s at home, waiting for you.” She couldn’t stop from wincing a little as she lied, feeling the guilt flood through her. 

“Okay,” JD nodded, apparently satisfied with that answer. Kait watched the blanket shift as he attempted to wrap his arms around his knees.

“Why don’t you try getting some sleep?” Kait recommended as his head nodded forward.

“S’too cold to sleep.” As if to reinforce his point, his teeth started clattering again.

“I’ll get something to help.” She said, pushing to her feet again. 

A soft groan left JD as she stepped away from him, and she could see the first signs of panic resurfacing on his face. Kait hurriedly grabbed her rucksack along with the one leaning beside it—ignoring Fahz’s complaint—and rushed back to JD’s side. He greeted her by releasing his arm from beneath the blanket and groping for her in the darkness.

JD managed to find her wrist as she dug through the pack, and he gripped her as tight as he could with his paltry strength. Once he had a hold of her, the panic faded away.   
At some point in the recent minutes he had gone from being wary of her, to being openly distraught if she left him alone. Kait wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not.

With her other hand, Kait pulled the tightly packed sleeping bag from her kit and quickly loosened the tie hold its bag closed. After a few awkward tugs she had the sleeping back unfurled and she laid it flat on the ground as best she could without wrenching her arm from JD’s grip.

“Lie down,” Kait instructed, reaching for the second pack she had pulled with her. Fahz’s kit was stowed more haphazardly, but she managed to dig out his sleeping bag after only a few seconds.

JD didn’t obey the order, and instead stared uncertainly at the dark, unreflective surface. 

“Do you want me to help you?” She offered, wishing either Marcus or Fahz would come over and assist. But Marcus had apparently decided he was going to ignore the situation, and Fahz kept shooting back glances that showed he was more than a little disturbed by JD’s behaviour.

“I d-d-don’t like it.” JD murmured, giving her a pitiful look.

“It’s alright. Here,” Kait knelt along the side of the sleeping bag and ran her free hand back and forth over the soft cloth to show him there was nothing there. She turned her other hand in JD’s grip so she could gently tug him closer. 

He still looked daunted by the stretch of black fabric, the soft threads absorbing the minimal light in the cavern and making it look like a bottomless pit to fall into. But seeing her safely touching the surface seemed encouraging enough and JD unwrapped himself from the emergency blanket to move himself closer to her.

“Lie down,” she ordered again, softer this time. Kait leaned towards him and helped bear his weight as he struggled to move and lay where she instructed. After a minute or two of fidgeting and trembling with cold, JD was curled in the fetal position atop the sleeping bag and Kait was wrapping the silver blanket around him again. 

JD had let go of her wrist while he moved onto the makeshift bed, and had pulled his arms tight against his chest to try and preserve his warmth. Kait quickly tucked the blanket around him, then took the second sleeping bag and draped it over his prone form. 

It was several minutes of near-constant teeth chattering before JD’s tense shivering began to ebb, the emergency blanket and sleeping bag combo keeping him warm enough. He was curled half-way to a tight ball, and Kait managed to find a small towel in her kit that she rolled to form a pillow for his head.

“T-t-thank you,” JD whispered, his hand sliding out from beneath the blanket to find hers again. Kait slipped her hand into his and his palm was scalding hot from the fever. Her skin must have felt ice cold by comparison, because he flinched and goosebumps prickled along his forearm at her touch. But he didn’t let go, and he stared up at her with glassy eyes and too-wide pupils.

He stared at her for a long time, his fingers spasming occasionally in her grip. “You’re m’friend, right?” JD murmured suddenly.

The excitement was instantaneous and it took so much control to keep herself from gripping his shoulders and hugging him tightly.

“You know who I am?” She tried to keep her voice level.

JD thought about the question for a moment, then rocked his head against the small pillow in a negatory gesture.

“N-no,” and as quickly as it had risen, her excitement drained again. “B-but I remember…” he squinted and frowned in a near-comical expression of concentration. “I ‘member you’re special to…to me.”

Kait smiled and clutched his warm hand in both of hers, squeezing it appreciatively. She felt another swell of emotion rise in her chest, but it wasn't the ominous dread or ice cold grief she was so used to. 

"Well, that's a good start." She murmured, moving one hand to affectionately stroke over the stubbled side of JD's head. "Try to sleep if you can."

"'Kay." He shuffled beneath the blankets and shivered slightly as he got comfortable, then closed his eyes.

Kait sat against the stone next to his head and eased the hold she had on his hand. JD pulled the arm back beneath the blankets and sighed as she continued to silently stroke his head. 

JD kept fidgeting and shuddering for a long time, then eventually he relaxed and the shivering stopped and his breathing deepened. Kait stayed with him the whole time, her fingers softly brushing over his feverish skin. 

She lingered beside him for a while yet to ensure he was sleeping soundly. Sweat glistened on his brow, sparkling blue in the light of the glowing mushrooms. Kait would have to make sure he hydrated properly when he woke, regardless of the creatures he saw crawling out of his canteen.

When the faint rumble of a snore began rising from JD's throat, Kait decided it was safe to get up and leave him curled beneath the blankets. As quietly as she could, she pushed up off the ground and walked to the opening of the alcove to join Fahz and Marcus.

"So how's our esteemed captain doing? Still trippin' balls?" Fahz asked, though he didn't look as amused as Kait would have thought. If anything, there were faint lines of worry on his face and she had to appreciate the fact that he kept his voice low so he wouldn't wake JD.

"Yeah," she breathed, rubbing her face with a hand. "Still hallucinating pretty bad and I'd guess he's not remembering anything from the last fifteen years or so." Kait shot a look at Marcus and noted how tense he looked. "But maybe we'll be lucky and he'll sleep it off fast. Can't be permanent, right?"

No one made any comment at that, and she knew they didn't want to even entertain the idea that JD's memory could be affected indefinitely.

"Those pills will kick in soon and drop his fever, and we should wake him in a couple hours to give him another dose. He'll need water too, even though he's probably not going to like it." Kait leaned against the rock wall across the narrow opening from Marcus. "You'll probably have to help with that. He listens alright to you." She nodded toward the old man.

"Once he starts getting his memory back, I wouldn't count on him listening to me for very long." Marcus grumbled, still not glancing back at his son.

"You know, I always wondered what young JD was like. Cheeky little bugger, eh?" Fahz smirked at Marcus, who glowered back.

"Something like that." Muttered the old Gear, not elaborating.

Kait let the awkward silence drag on for several seconds, then said, "So, any chance someone packed a deck of cards?" 

She'd meant it as a poor attempt at a joke, something to alleviate the murky cloud of stress hanging over the three of them, but Fahz perked up a little. 

"Funny you should ask." He padded over to his forgotten pack and rummaged through one of the smaller outer pockets, pulling out a palm-sized bag crumpled around a yellowed cardboard box. He tossed the box to Kait, who plucked it out of the air. "Never leave home without'em." 

Kait gave a dry airy laugh and pulled the cards out of the box, shuffling them. She shot Marcus a questioning look, her eyebrows raised as she gestured with the cards, and he glared at the muted red deck. Then he gave an acquiescent nod and they settled on the floor across from each other to play.


	18. Chapter 18

Fahz kept watch while Kait dealt Marcus and herself each a hand of cards, and they eased into a quiet game her uncle had called 'Skirmish', but Marcus called 'Scrimish'. It was a game a lot of Gears knew how to play, and both Kait's uncle and her father had taught her their own tactics.

They played several fast-paced rounds in near silence, with Fahz occasionally glancing over from where he was perched against a stalagmite in the alcove's opening. Sometimes he contributed by hissing out a snarky remark or chastising snort at one of their plays, swearing he'd play against the winner and kick their ass.

There was a small puff of pride in her chest when she walloped Marcus's hand of cards with a brilliant play of her own, earning her a poisonous glare and an angry snarl from the old Gear. Normally that kind of reaction would send people scurrying away, but Kait shot him a wide smile instead and he conceded with an amused snort.

It was a decent way to kill time, and focusing on beating Marcus meant she could keep the gnawing worry for JD at bay.

With a huff Marcus threw down his cards and pushed to his feet, evidently tired of being beaten more times than not. "Good thing we didn't wager anything. You'd have cleaned me out." He said with a shake of his head.

Marcus waved Fahz away from his guard position so he could relieve him. Fahz eagerly plopped down where Marcus had been sitting and waited for Kait to deal him a handful of cards.

Fahz, surprising everyone, was a brilliant card player. Marcus was good at the game and Kait was better, but either luck was entirely on Fahz's side or he was prodigy when it came to bluffing and scheming. 

They played four rounds—with Kait losing every round—before she forced them to quit and pick another game. Fahz's boasting after every hand quickly grew annoying and tiresome.

They played a full game of 'Cabbage', mentally keeping score since they lacked the board to track their points. Fahz easily beat her with a twenty-nine point lead, and he _would not_ shut up about it.

Kait had the good grace to laugh off her defeat and hand back the deck of cards, having lost her desire to keep playing. She promised herself she would never play against Fahz again if there were wagers to lose.

"And another falls to my magnificence." Fahz gloated as he shuffled the yellowed cards. Kait just gave a roll of her eyes.

She glanced back at JD, who was still sleeping soundly, though even in the darkness she could see how much he was sweating. Kait sighed and pushed to her feet.

"Give me a hand with him, will you? We need to get some water in him." She said to Fahz, who looked hesitantly at JD's prone form. 

"Yeah, alright." He said with no small degree of uncertainty. Kait offered Fahz a hand and hauled him to his feet. 

Marcus shot them a querying look, then turned his attention back to his lookout spot and said nothing. Kait wanted to say something that would entice Marcus to be more concerned about his son, but she frowned at his back but kept her comments and opinions to herself.

"He's not going to like this." She breathed heavily, kneeling down beside JD. He wasn't shivering but his skin was still too warm and damp with sweat. 

JD stirred momentarily when she pressed her palm to his forehead, his face scrunching up in displeasure. He was definitely still running a fever, but he wasn't as hot as he had been. Kait hastily checked the digital clock on the inside of her wrist and noted it had been over ninety minutes since he taken the medication, so it was a good sign the small pills were working.

"JD," she said gently, shaking his shoulder with one hand and pointing Fahz towards JD's canteen with the other. "JD, wake up."

JD's expression twisted again and he groaned, squeezing his eyes tightly and rolling his face to try and bury it into the towel serving as his pillow.

"I know," Kait murmured sympathetically. "But I need you to get up. Just for a minute, and then you can go back to sleep." She kept shaking his shoulder, the gesture becoming more insistent the more JD resisted her.

Finally he muttered out something intelligible and his eyes cracked open to stare up at her. Kait's attempt at a smile was cut off when JD's eyes went wide and pushed away from her, tangling himself in the two sleeping bags serving as his bed. He managed to scramble into an upright position with his back against the wall and one sweat-slicked arm shoved outward to hold her away.

"Hey!" She yelped, then more softly, "Hey, it's alright. It's me, remember?" Kait supposed she couldn't really count on him remembering anything at the moment, but it didn't hurt to try.

JD's breaths were shallow and rapid, like a dog panting in the heat, and his eyes were darting fearfully from Kait to Fahz and back again. Kait grasped his outstretched hand and tried to ignore how he tried to jerk away from her touch.

He panted through clenched teeth, staring at her for several long tense moments before his brow flinched and a look of recognition crossed his features. His efforts to pull his hand away from hers suddenly stopped, and instead is fingers clenched tightly around her hers.

"There you go." Kait said softly, smiling reassuringly. JD was still shooting concerned glances over her shoulder towards Fahz, but he was more relaxed that she had hoped. "How are you feeling?" 

He dragged his eyes from Fahz back to her and he took a few seconds to think about the question. "I'm...I'm really hot."

"I bet you are." She said with a chuckle, keeping her hold on him so she could stretch her other arm back to Fahz without looking. A second later she felt the hefty cool weight of the canteen in her hand. "You're still pretty sick, but it looks like the drugs are helping. You can go back to sleep in a minute, but first I need you to drink this." 

Kait presented the canteen and saw that Fahz had already unscrewed the cap. Silently she wished he hadn't done that, because it only took half a second for JD to see the dark opening and his hallucinating mind began filling it with a horrendous image. 

There was no way of knowing what he was seeing, but it wasn't the calmer response he'd had when he'd peered into the canteen before. This was a more violent revulsion that had him seething fearfully through his teeth and shoving away from her.

"Shit." She hissed, easing back on her haunches and glancing back at Fahz. "I knew this wasn't going to be easy."

"So now what?" He asked, shifting on his feet uncertainly.

"There's nothing in there, JD, I promise." Kait eased herself closer again, noting that JD was shivering, though it was more from fear than from his fever this time.

She tried holding the canteen out to JD, but he kept creeping away from it, his head tilted back as though it was emitting a foul stench.

“Here,” Kait gently grasped his closest hand and attempted to coax his fingers around the container, but JD yanked his hand away the moment the cool plastic brushed his skin. She sighed. “Please, JD. You need to drink something. I promise you’ll feel better once you do.”

The canteen almost went flying away when JD attempted to bat it out of her hand, but he was clumsy and Kait pulled it out of reach before he could make contact.

“Fahz,” she said, looking back at the other man. Fahz looked very uncomfortable, his hands slowly wringing. “You think you could hold him still for me?”

There was a long moment of silence as Fahz blinked at her through his rose lenses.

“You serious?” He asked, all disbelief on his face. Kait gave a nod that she hoped conveyed as much exhausted reluctance as she was feeling.

Kait didn’t want to pin JD down and force water down his throat, but she was going to do what needed to be done to take care of him, whether JD liked it or not. Fahz cursed under his breath, incredulous at the ridiculousness of their situation, and stepped forward to stand beside her.

“Where do you want me?” He asked, his serious tone betraying how agonized he was.

“See if you can get behind him. I need to keep his arms out of the way.” JD eyed them both warily, seeming to suspect what was about to happen.

Treating him like a skittish puppy, Fahz slowly walked around JD’s sitting form, keeping his distance and not acting immediately. JD was torn between watching Fahz behind him and Kait in front of him.

“S’alright, mate.” Fahz uttered out, doing his best to sound soothing. It was an odd thing to hear coming from the normally exuberant Gear. He carefully knelt down onto one knee, still a few feet away from JD’s back.

“I’m sorry about this,” Kait did not try to hide her guilt as she said it. Horror sparked across JD’s features just as Kait nodded and Fahz lunged forward to forcefully grab and pin JD’s arms behind his back.

Without being told to, Fahz was able to keep JD’s arms locked in place with one hand and wrapped his other arm around his neck. It resembled a chokehold, but lacked the aggressive strength that would render JD unconscious. Instead it just forced JD’s head into one position and held him there.

And JD was not happy about the position he had suddenly found himself in. A startled, muffled yelp had escaped him the moment Fahz had grabbed him, and it had devolved into a series of short strangled grunts as the big arm secured around his throat.

Kait cringed, wishing she had thought of another solution. JD was stricken with panic, his feet kicking at the stone floor and his body squirming futilely. Fahz was stronger than him even without the toxin running through his system, and its effects meant he was hopelessly weak. She could only imagine how helpless he felt at that moment.

Stealing a quick glance, she saw that Marcus was still staring resolutely ahead, pointedly ignoring what was happening to his son. Anger flashed furiously inside Kait at the thought, and she scowled.

“Hold him still.” She said, harnessing that anger and using it to fuel her determination and focus on the task at hand.

"You've no idea how often I've dreamt of throttling you, mate," Fahz uttered as he tightened his arm around JD's neck. "But, uh...this isn't quite what I had in mind." There was no amusement in the statement, just grim resignation.

JD let out a strangled cry of desperation before Kait took the opportunity to pour water into his open mouth. Most of it splashed down his face and over Fahz’s arm, but what had made it into his mouth had to be swallowed or else he would choke on it, and his dehydrated body instinctively made that decision before he could try to spit it out.

It seemed that after the first initial seconds, JD clued in that he could clamp his mouth shut to prevent the water from getting in. Kait combatted the idea by bracing her hand on his face and squeezing his cheeks inward, forcing him to keep his mouth open to reduce the pain she was inflicting.

JD kept trying to thrash, and Kait braced her bent leg over his thighs and leaned her weight onto them, pinning the limbs down. Tears crept from the corners of JD's eyes as he clamped them shut, and he whimpered in between gurgled, forced gulps of water.

After several long seconds of JD trying to fight them, it seemed to dawn on him that the water was not the harmful creature his hallucinations had shown him. The thrashing began to lessen gradually, and his dehydrated body tried to edge closer to the steady stream of water Kait was pouring. 

Seeing him suddenly and positively reacting to the water, Kait eased the canteen closer until it was at his lips and he was swallowing rapidly.

She wanted him to pace himself, worried that gulping down too much fluid would upset his stomach, but if she relented and his hallucinations were allowed to manifest themselves again he might not want to drink any more. So she conceded and tilted the canteen up to increase the flow. 

Fahz also noticed JD relaxing in his hold, and slowly eased the grip he had on the man's wrists. He also loosened the arm coiled around Fahz's neck, but left it in place in case he had to wrestle JD back into submission.

With his hands freed, JD reached up to hold the canteen. His breaths were gasping through his nose in between gulps, and he still didn't have the strength to keep the bottle held up, so Kait helped.

Eventually the canteen ran dry, and Kait quickly pulled it away and placed it out of sight behind her. JD panted as he caught his breath, and Fahz pulled himself away from JD to ease back on his haunches.

"M'still thirsty." He said, the traumatic experience of being pinned down already forgotten.

Again Kait debated giving him more water, worried it would overwhelm his stomach and induce vomiting, but decided the risk was worth it. She pulled her own canteen free from her belt, shook it and estimated it to be about half full. Holding it out to him—the cap still in place—Kait waited to see if JD would take it.

He reached out for it eagerly, and Kait shot a look at Fahz. “Can you try distracting him? Something to occupy his mind so he’s less jumpy?" 

Fahz didn’t even hesitate. ”JD, mate, you remember that time we had to train the squad of recruits? Took'em on the overnight excursion in the outskirts of New Ephyra?" JD twisted and looked back at him, his hands already wrapped around Kait's canteen.

With JD's attention focused on him, Fahz broke into a colourful and increasingly fantastical tale of the two of them and their misadventures with twenty recruits. Kait wasn't sure if everything Fahz said was true, but she didn't doubt that the story was based on a real event. Regardless, the tale had its desired effect of enrapturing JD.

While he was looking away, distracted as Fahz continued to talk enthusiastically, Kait swiftly unscrewed the cap of the canteen and helped JD lift it to mouth. Thankfully he never bothered to look into the bottle before he began chugging back the water, his eyes wide and staring fixedly on Fahz's gesturing hands.

JD drained what was left of Kait's canteen, then set it on the stone floor where it toppled over. Kait collected it and screwed the cap back on. She had a larger reservoir in her pack she could fill the canteen from later, and just slotted it back in its holster at the back of her combat belt.

Even though their task was complete and JD was adequately hydrated, Fahz didn't seem eager to stop talking. If anything he looked quite content having a captive audience, even if that audience was under the influence of an unknown venom and hallucinogen. 

Kait decided to let Fahz prattle on if it meant JD was occupied, and pushed to her feet. She glanced over at Marcus again and saw the old man standing at the mouth of their alcove, looking like a stone statue in the darkness.

She felt that anger rise in her again, and wanted to stomp over to Marcus and throw everything she thought of him at that moment into his face. His son, the last living member of his family, was ill and afraid and Marcus was doing everything he could to simply forget he existed. 

Kait couldn't imagine a world where her mother or father ever would have treated her that way. She remembered more than one occasion when she'd come down with a fever, not dissimilar to JD's, and had spent nights curled between her parents in their bed.

The fury lit a fire in her chest and she very nearly stormed over to Marcus and unleashed on him, but then she remembered who she would be dealing with. Marcus was like a chunk of osmium; nigh on indestructible.

Kait had seen how he treated people who were angry with him; he would brush them off with a cold indifference, his thoughts and opinions unmovable. Or he'd get angry himself, his features turning dark and his fists balling. That had happened more than once in one of the more acidic arguments between him and JD, and it usually ending with the two of them spewing hurtful things that would prevent them from talking for weeks on end. 

So she took a breath and forced that burning in her chest to ebb, and quietly walked to Marcus's side.

"The drugs are working," she said softly, peering out into the glowing cavern. She focused on Marcus in her peripheral vision. "But I don't know if he's any better."

Marcus simply gave a small noise that wasn't quite a grunt. Kait scowled, but didn't look at him.

"It's only been a couple of hours. If this venom—or whatever it is—hasn't strayed too far from normal Snatcher venom, then we should start seeing improvements in a few more hours." She continued, hoping to get some sort of real response from Marcus.

"Good." He said, his voice low so it wouldn't carry out into the main cavern. "The sooner he's on his feet, the sooner we can get out of here."

Kait let the quiet linger for a moment, Fahz still chatting away happily behind them.

"Why don't you go sit with him? He's still pretty freaked out, but he seems to feel better when you're around." From the corner of her eye, she saw Marcus's grip flex on his Lancer.

"Sounds like he's doing just fine with Fahz." He rumbled dismissively. Kait forcefully repressed the urge to snap at him.

"For now. JD's barely tolerating us, but he had a much better reaction to you. I think it would help him if you spent some time with him." Kait did her best to keep the irritation out of her voice, but based on the way Marcus's head subtly tilted, she didn't do a very good job.

"Is that an order?" Marcus asked after a few moments. 

She didn't outrank him, not by a long shot, but they had a certain rapport that meant he would listen to her...sometimes. And Kait could flex that power if she really wanted to, but she rarely did.

"Does it have to be?" She finally turned to look at him full on, and was greeted by Marcus's stubborn frown. He knew that _she knew_ he was avoiding JD and the topic of JD's illness, and evidently he didn't like that she had caught on. "I know you don't like seeing him when he's injured—"

A gruff sound from Marcus's throat cut her off, but she wouldn’t let it stop her.

"I know that has to be hard. But ignoring him isn't helping anyone, least of all JD." Kait did what she could to lace her voice with as much empathy as possible. She had to tread carefully in their conversation, or else Marcus would pull away and she'd lose him.

"There is nothing I can do to help." Came the terse response.

"That's bullshit and you know it." She responded, keeping her voice low and gentle. “He’ll feel better just knowing you’re there with him.”

And then, in a rare moment of raw honesty, Marcus let out a heavy sigh and said, "I hate not being able to do anything. Grubs and Swarm? I can deal with that. But sitting and watching my son...my wife..." His voice trailed off and he shook his head, his eyes slipping shut and a gloved hand coming up to rub at them.

"I know," Kait said, her voice almost a whisper. It was impossible not to think about the nights she had spent sitting by her father's bed in his final days, so young and helpless to do anything but sit and wait for the end. "I know. It's hard not to feel useless. But right now, you're not useless. JD will be okay, he just needs a bit of time. And he needs you." She laid a hand on Marcus's forearm and squeezed it, even though it was unlikely he'd feel it through the thick layers of his armour. "I'll keep watch, you go save JD from Fahz."

Marcus gave her a weary, tired look, then nodded and leaned his rifle against the rock wall beside her.

Kait watched, a soft smile on her face, as Marcus gave Fahz a tap on the shoulder and ushered him away so he could take his spot on the rock floor. JD's reaction was immediate and Fahz was swiftly forgotten, replaced by a mixture of relief and delight at seeing his father.

———

It's not as though Marcus spent any time talking with JD, and Kait wasn’t about to ask the impossible and beg the old man to try having a proper conversation with his son. But just being nearby, within arm's reach and eyesight did far more to put JD at ease that Kait or Fahz had. 

And JD would rotate through waves of exhaustion and fits of hallucinations. Marcus, perhaps wary of Kait's disapproval or maybe realizing he was actually helping, remained very stoic. If JD's panic rose, he would place a firm hand on his son's shoulder and speak in even tones that would have JD quickly steady himself and calm.

After a few hours, Kait presented JD with another couple of white pills to keep his fever down, and with a shaky look to his father for approval, JD swallowed them down. He barely even made a fuss about the canteen and the tentacles or slugs or hedgehogs he saw crawling out of it.

Fahz and Kait were standing together at the mouth of the small alcove, keep guard and slowly eating their way through another cold round of rations, when they heard JD's voice pick up.

“Dad,” JD said, gripping his father’s shoulders firmly, but shakily. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, his pupils still too big in the darkness. “Dad, I think there’s something wrong with me.”

His voice was stronger and no longer slurred, a very good sign that he was starting to recover.

Marcus held JD’s biceps, holding him steady as his son quavered his grasp. “Yeah, James.” He uttered, his voice soft. “You’re sick. You got hit with a Snatcher quill. You remember that?”

“No, Dad,” JD’s face was so serious and focused. “I think…” he swallowed and coughed a little, and when he spoke again his voice was a dry fearful whisper. “I think there’s a duck inside of me.”

He had said it with so much certainty and conviction that Marcus, Kait and Fahz all froze at once and stared at JD. Even Dave—who had been laying in sleep mode to preserve power—lit up and chirped, his arrowhead optics angled upwards in intrigue.

Kait met Fahz’s eyes and she felt her breath catch as a bubble rose in her chest. 

A sharp bark of laughter burst from her throat and she hastily slammed her palm over her mouth. But it didn’t stop, and Kait snorted and choked as she fought to keep herself under control. 

All the stress and worry she'd been feeling the last several hours suddenly unwound in her chest and Kait couldn’t stop the laughter that overwhelmed her.

Kait laughed until she was breathless and had to suck in a ragged breath through her fingers, still clamped over her mouth. And then she laughed some more.

Fahz stared at her, his mouth frozen in a half smile as Kait descended into a fit of giggles, and then he started chuckling.

Distantly she heard Marcus’s voice, calm and reassuring. “There’s no duck, James.” And it sent her into another muffled howl. 

“No, no Dad there is! There’s a duck, and it’s small and has green feathers and it’s _inside_ of me.” JD insisted, his fingers so tight on his father’s shoulders he looked ready to crush the armour. “And it wants to eat _pancakes._ ” His voice came out almost as a squeak, absurdly high pitched and strained.

That seemed to set Fahz off, and he bowed forward and pressed a fist against his mouth as he followed Kait into a round of giggles.

“James, take it easy.” Even Marcus sounded a little amused by that point. He tried to coax his son to lay back on the ground. “I promise there's no duck inside of you.” 

It was a real struggle to stop giggling. Kait balled her hands into fists and tried to force herself to take deep steady breaths, but then she glanced up and saw Fahz shaking with laughter and it just set her off again.

“Real help you two are.” Marcus shot back over his shoulder after he’d gotten JD to calm down. He glared at the two of them, but his eyes were crinkled at the edges in the way that meant he was as entertained as they were.

Kait and Fahz shared a look, both of them struggling to catch their breath, and then then JD let out a soft, panicked quacking noise in the darkness and they couldn't contain themselves any more, falling into another spasm of laughter.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So my computer died the big death in December while I was busy writing this. Thankfully I am wise in the way of backups so no data was lost, but it left me without a device to write with, hence the rather lengthy delay between chapters. But here we are, with the light at the end of the tunnel (perhaps literally? Read on!), so please enjoy. 
> 
> This is essentially the first phase of the overall story, with the next stage beginning after this chapter. The plot shall thicken!

JD let his eyes blink open—not for the first time—and stared at the ceiling. Twinkling blue lights of crystalline butterflies flitted above him, looking like roiling constellations. It was mesmerizing and beautiful and some part of him knew he would never see that sight again, so he savoured it.

The butterflies swarmed and burst apart in a cascade of sparkles, the faint flashing of their wings disintegrating and reshaping themselves into a river that flowed with long rippling currents. As the shimmering river flowed along the walls and wound around the stalactites, JD spotted the flash of tails in the water and watched as glass blue fish leapt and splashed in a display he wished he could share with others. 

But the butterflies and the river and the fish were only for him and if he tried to show them to the others, their flapping and splashing and dancing would fade away to return when it was just him again.

He smiled as he watched the secret display. JD clutched the soft cover over his body and pulled it tight to his chest, tucking his chin under the edge as the fish leapt from the water and flew with feathered wings from one shining stalactite to another.

The winged fish plucked at the stars in the ceiling and JD felt the heavy tug of sleep on his eyelids. As he drifted back to sleep, the stars twinkled and danced and sang a lullaby just for him.

———

He felt too hot. Too thirsty. Too heavy.

His mind was swimming through a viscous sludge, making it hard for his thoughts to coalesce and become solid. Too often his mind would wander and careen down tangents and lines of memories that made no sense. 

Familiar faces would flash in his mind’s eye. People he knew and shared experiences with, smiling at him through the haze before slipping away to be replaced by someone else. 

And he saw strangers and demons as well. Twisted and deformed figures, formerly human but reshaped into monsters comprised of coiled flesh and teeth. Worms slithered beneath their skin, burrowing their way up to the open air to reach for him.

He recoiled with a rushed breath, scrambling back at the horrible sight. His back hit the cool stone wall, and he kicked his boots uselessly against the ground as he tried to get away. 

The demonic figures kept edging closer, the worms dropping to the ground to try and inch their way up along his legs. Beetles and pulsing red grubs joined them, their mandibles clacking hungrily as they squirmed closer.

JD panted and a faint helpless groan edged up from his chest, and then there was a solid warm weight on his shoulder and a familiar comforting voice emanated from somewhere off to his right.

"Easy, James. You're alright." It was his father, steady and calm. JD spun his head towards the voice, the sharp motion making his head ache, and he groped weakly for the hand that was on his shoulder.

His father was there with him in the darkness, his features shadowed and dulled, but unmistakable. JD glanced back to his feet where the boots were slowly being covered by the pulsing red grubs. He watched as a beetled coiled back and sprang upwards to land on his arm to bite him.

With a gasping desperate sound he flicked his arm as hard as he could, feeling pain lance up his hand when it collided with the floor.

"Deep breaths, James." His father said quietly, unfazed by the small creeping army coming towards them. The hand on his shoulder squeezed almost hard enough to hurt, but it reminded him that the old man was there beside him. "Deep breaths," he said again. "In and out. Just focus on that."

The hand squeezed his shoulder again as his shaking lungs sucked in a rough breath, listening to his father's guidance without ever questioning it. 

The worms and the demons and the grubs kept coming, but his father was there with him and calmly guiding him. Marcus was a veteran of the Locust war and had seen horrors beyond imagining, so if he wasn’t worried about the marching army of creatures then maybe he wasn’t in as much danger as he thought? 

Marcus encouraged JD to breathe if he inadvertently held his breath, his steady deep voice somehow warding away the horrible little creatures. After a handful of breaths, JD felt the tension ease from his limbs and a soft haze filled his vision as the worms and grubs began dissolving into the darkness. They faded away, one by one, their bodies breaking apart into speckled blue fragments and he raised his eyes to watch them float away.

Through it all, his father stayed with him and kept his heavy hand on JD's shoulder. 

JD shuddered in relief when the last of the creatures evaporated and its pieces disappeared into the dark. Then he wiped at his face with a shaking hand and looked to his father.

Marcus was watching him carefully and scowling deeply, but it was reassuring in its own way. When he saw that JD had calmed, he eased his hand off his shoulder, making the release of weight very gradual. 

It occurred to JD that this wasn’t the first time his father had talked him down and ridded him of the plague of creatures. The shards of memory shimmered in his mind and JD couldn’t deny the sense of deja vu. He tried so hard to focus on those memories, to try and hear what his father had said the last time.

"Those weren't real." He gestured unsteadily to the space of floor beyond his boot soles. “That…that’s happened before, hasn’t it?”

Marcus's head tilted a little and JD recognized his father's subdued look of surprise. 

"Yes," Marcus said with a gentle nod of his head. "You're hallucinating from Snatcher venom."

JD's brows drew together as he thought about that, willing his thoughts to push aside the fog that flooded his mind.

"Yeah," JD said finally. "I think...I think I remember something about that." His words drew the attention of the other two in the small cave, but they didn't speak up. 

JD glanced at them and he knew immediately that he recognized them and trusted them—he could understand that much at least—but their names were lost to him. The woman on the left, with the concern in her eyes, made something in his chest ache in a way that wasn’t painful.

“That’s good.” Marcus murmured, something similar to relief hinted in his tone. “Whatever was in that venom has been messing with your memory, but it sounds like you’re starting to come out of it.”

JD nodded, then felt his stomach clench. For a moment he thought it was the pang of fear and adrenaline returning, then relaxed when he recognized the familiar sensation.

“I’m hungry,” one hand pressed to his abdomen as his stomach let out a low growl. “Do you have anything to eat?”

The woman standing at the mouth of their little alcove pulled a package from one of the backpacks on the ground and quietly walked over to him. She knelt in front of JD and tore open the package, and JD stared up at her.

He was positive he knew her, her features so familiar and ingrained in his memory, but he couldn’t remember how he knew her. JD wracked his mind and found no memories or moments they had shared together, and he couldn’t even remember her name. He recognized her and knew he trusted her implicitly, but it was less of a certainty in his mind and more of an intense gut feeling.

“Here,” she said, retrieving a metallic pouch from the package and tearing the top off before jabbing the provided plastic spoon into the contents. “Chicken stew, your favourite.” She smiled warmly. “Sorry it’s cold.”

It didn’t smell particularly enticing, but his stomach grumbled eagerly and JD took the pouch from her hands with enthusiasm.

If the food was supposed to be his favourite, then he clearly had poor taste. It was too salty and otherwise had no discernible flavour, but that didn’t stop him from scooping heaping spoonfuls into his mouth.

“Woah, slow down.” The woman said with a smile in her voice. “And _chew_ before you swallow, or you’re gonna choke on it.”

JD slowed his frantic eating, and took his time scraping the sides of the pouch with the edge of his spoon to retrieve as much of the stew as he could.

It only took him a couple of minutes to finish the pouch, and he automatically found himself reaching for the rest of the torn open package that sat near his feet.

“Easy, you haven’t eaten in a while. We don’t want you to eat too much and upset your stomach.” She said, pulling the package away before he could grab it. 

But she seemed to pity him and handed him a package of crackers that he tore open. The first one disappeared into his mouth and on the first bite the mouthful of crumbs flew down his throat when he inhaled at the same time, sending him into a fit of coughs. 

"Yup, and that's exactly what I expected would happen." She shook her head ruefully, sitting back on her heels after she'd handed him a canteen of water. 

JD managed to chug back a few mouthfuls of water and felt the immediate relief as the tickling crumbs were washed down. 

"Thanks," he smiled briefly, then shoved another cracker into his mouth and chewed much more carefully.

The woman smiled and chuckled and leaned forward to press her hand against his forehead. Her touch was cool and JD held still but tried to look up at the hand. He munched contentedly on another cracker as she rotated her hand to press the backs of her fingers against his skin, then moved the hand down to his neck, just beneath the rim of his t-shirt.

"You feel a lot better. No more fever, so that's good news. Do you feel cold at all? Shivery?" JD didn't know why she was asking those questions, but again felt that sense of deja vu, like she'd asked him the same thing not that long ago.

"No," he shook his head, still chewing on a mouthful of cracker. "It's a bit warm, actually."

That made her look a bit happier, which he enjoyed more that he would have expected.

"You think you can stand up and walk?" She asked, raising to her feet and planting her hands on her hips.

"You really think he's ready to move?" Came an accented voice. JD turned to the other man standing at the mouth of their small alcove and saw the glossy glasses staring back at him. "Seems like he was still seeing bugs and shit just a few minutes ago."

"I didn't ask if he was ready to hike a few clicks through Swarm-infested tunnels," she shot back with a small roll of her eyes. "I just asked if he could stand up and walk."

JD swallowed down the last of his crackers and wondered if he could coax his leaden legs to lift him up. Marcus pushed to his feet beside him, grunting a little as he stretched. Then the old man offered him a hand and JD clasped it.

With a heave, his father tugged him upwards and JD's legs trembled as they suddenly found themselves supporting his weight.

"Woah," he wavered on his feet, swaying slightly as his balance seemed to swing one way and then another. He planted a hand on the cool stone wall to steady himself, noting that both his father and the familiar woman had their hands out to catch him if he teetered over. “It's...ahh...not easy." 

To punctuate his point, JD's free arm windmilled as he nearly fell backwards, then steadied himself after a moment.

"Right, so we'll be here a while yet." The distant man with the accent said with heavy sigh.

The woman slid up beside him and pulled his free arm over her shoulder to steady him, encouraging him to lean on her rather than the wall.

"Let's take a few steps and see how you do." She said, and he clung tightly to her as she encouraged him to move. 

His legs felt like rubber, flexing too easily and swaying this way and that under his weight. But he managed a few jarring steps with the help of her support, the task growing easier with each step. 

After a few steps to reach the other side of the alcove, they turned and walked back and JD saw that his father was quietly watching him.

"We're not ready to move out yet," Marcus uttered gruffly. JD was about to feel a little despondent at his father's disappointment when the old man added, "But at the rate you're recovering we'll probably be set in a few more hours.” And it swiftly stopped JD’s spirits from sinking too far.

With the woman’s help JD was eased back to the floor, feeling strained and achy after just a few steps. He felt like he had just run a marathon with weights tied to his ankles, the way his legs throbbed. 

Something in the corner of his eye flashed and his head jerked in its direction, seeing a sparkling amorphous _thing_ slithering out of the dark. His first reaction was to sneer in disgust and edge away from the slimy creature, noting that it looked like an odd fish-type thing. 

More of the same creatures materialized out of the darkness, their glistening hides translucent and shimmering with the blue light JD kept seeing everywhere. 

“They’re not real,” The woman said softly, kneeling beside him and placing a warm hand on his shoulder. “Just remember that.”

JD swallowed and nodded, taking deep breaths like his father had instructed him before. He was hallucinating and he remembered that. There were real monsters they were fighting, but whatever this black fish-like creature was, it wasn’t the real threat. 

He sucked a slow careful breath in, feeling the warm damp air swirl in his lungs before he exhaled. He repeatedly the breaths, each a little slower than the last, his hand unconsciously reaching up and grasping at the woman’s hand on his shoulder. 

JD didn’t even notice he’d grabbed her hand until she squeezed his encouragingly, and that seemed to be the final step in ridding him of his hallucinations. The shadows took back their hideous creatures and left him with his father, the man with the glasses, and the woman who was so important to him, if only he could remember why. 

“They’re gone,” he murmured, slumping back and relaxing with a smile. “Thanks. I’ve been seeing things a lot lately, haven’t I?” 

The woman returned the smile. “Yeah,” she eased back on her heels, then plopped down on the floor beside him. JD realized belatedly that he was still holding her hand but she didn’t complain and he didn’t feel like letting go just yet. “Do you remember anything from earlier today? Yesterday?”

JD pondered that for a long moment, seeing that haze in his memory waft about stubbornly. He tried to push through, to access a recent memory that he knew was there, and managed to see glimpses and flashes that made little sense to him.

“We were somewhere metal, right? Somewhere noisy and hot?” He scratched at his head with his free hand, momentarily distracted when he couldn’t remember when he’d shaved his head. He hadn’t done that since...since when? And when had he grown a beard? It was a scruffy itchy thing and it was annoying in the warm dampness of the cave. 

“Yeah, that’s right.” She nodded beside him. 

He stared at her for a long time, and she stared back, her expression neutral and patient. Eventually JD sighed and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand. 

“I’m sorry, I know you, I _know_ I do, but I don’t remember your name.” He felt embarrassed and ashamed, because she was definitely someone important.

“It’s Kait.” She said, her smile so warm and gentle, and then her red and black hair seemed to slither and slide along her head. JD caught himself staring at the living strands for a moment, then taking a deep breath and focusing intently until they stopped moving and shifted back into normal hair. 

“Kait,” he tested the sound of her name, noting how familiar it was on his tongue. But even then he couldn’t recall how he knew her, just that throb in his chest that told him she mattered deeply. “I...I wish I could say I’d remember that. But I don’t think my track record is so great right now.” 

“It’ll come back to you, I’m sure. And then we’ll get out of these tunnels and head back to New Ephyra.” At the mention of the city JD felt a surge of excitement.

“New Ephyra! My mom should be there, and she—“ and his voice snagged in his throat as a distant memory barged through the fog in his mind and he felt it kick him in the gut. “She...she...” he trailed off, his eyes going distant for a moment. Then he refocused on Kait and his breath shuddered out of him in a rush. “She’s gone, isn’t she? I—“ his voice broke, “I knew that.”

Kait nodded slowly and sadly. “She is. I’m sorry.” 

“It happened a long time ago,” JD swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat, feeling numb for a few seconds while he came to terms with the knowledge. “Right.” He forced a smile and looked at Kait, noting his vision was a bit blurry at the edges.

His father knelt before him, looking a little withdrawn at the mention of Anya. “So what’s the last thing you really remember?” JD saw the opportunity to change the subject and he grasped at it eagerly.

“I enlisted in the COG. Passed my papers in at the recruitment office with Del.” Then JD snorted a little and grinned at his father. “Boy were you pissed about that.”

Marcus gave a grunt. “Yeah.” Then he pondered that information for a moment. “That was a few years back. Hell of a lot better than what you were remembering just a couple hours ago.”

“At this rate, we might be able to finally get out of here today.” Kait added.

“Oh thank _fuck_ because you lot are starting to smell awfully ripe.” The man with the accented voice said, his face twisting in revulsion as he glared at them from the alcove entrance.

“And you’re a real bunch of roses yourself.” Kait shot back swiftly, making JD grin.

————

JD couldn’t remember when it had happened, but he’d fallen asleep again. He suspected it was a combination of the warm temperature, echoing silence, and his full stomach that lulled him to sleep, not to mention the bone-deep exhaustion he was feeling.

He rubbed a hand against his eyes and groaned, forcing himself into an upright position and feeling his blanket fall off him. When he opened his eyes they were still in the dark cave with the glowing mushrooms, but the haze surrounding his thoughts felt lighter and not nearly so dense.

“Mornin’ Fahz,” he uttered groggily, realizing a moment too late that Fahz was sleeping as well. He’d been sitting beside JD’s blanket, his head tilted back against the stone and his eyes closed and breathing deep. But he stirred at the sound of JD’s voice and blinked awake.

Fahz yawned and stretched, then scratched at the side of his shaved head and stared blearily at JD through his lenses.

“And how’s our noble captain feeling now?” Fahz asked while stifling down another yawn.

“Like I took on a Swarmak in a fist fight and lost.” JD extended his arms out ahead of himself and felt something in his shoulder pop, making him hiss through his teeth. 

“You still seeing all the creepy crawlies?” 

“What? No...” JD blinked quizzically as Fahz raised his eyebrows dubiously. Then JD’s own eyebrows shot up and his eyes went wide.

His heart began pounding as a flood of memories washed over him and he realized the bizarre hell he’d dragged his team through. Kait, forever patient with him as he panicked and clung fearfully to her; his father, steady and calm no matter what horrors descended upon them; and Fahz, who had persevered by simply being himself, as mouthy and unapologetic as ever.

“Oh hell.” JD uttered, unable to find anything else to say at that moment. A series of different emotions overcame him, ranging from shame to embarrassment and everything in between.

He buried his face in his hands for several long seconds, unwilling to look any of them in the eye just yet.

“I think he’s back.” JD could hear the giant grin in Fahz’s voice, and his face burned.

Sheepishly, he peeked out between his fingers and found Kait squatting in front of him with a look that was equal measures worry and amusement.

JD sighed and dropped his hands away from his face to offer her a reluctant timid smile.

“Well you remembered who Fahz is, so that’s a good start.” She mused, the concern quickly disappearing from her expression as she saw his face. “Do you remember who I am?”

“You’re the weather girl from the COG news. Can I get your autograph?” He tried to ask in a deadpan tone, but his widening grin gave him away.

“Ugh, _please_.” She rolled her eyes with a scoffing laugh. “JD’s back, no doubt.”

“Good, but now we need to know if he can walk.” Marcus said from his guard position at the front of the alcove, as terse as always.

“So,” Kait rose to her full height and stared down at him. “Can you?”

She offered JD a hand and he he hesitated a moment to consider his aching legs, then let her help him to his feet.

Like before, he wobbled and teetered a little for the first few seconds, then found his balance. His legs throbbed in protest, but they were not nearly as weak as they had been earlier. JD managed a few unsteady steps on his own, one hand against the wall for support, until he felt more secure and dropped the hand away.

He walked slowly and carefully, wary that he might stumble and fall at any moment. But his balance and strength held and he grew increasingly confident and stable.

“Looking good to me.” Fahz said with a shrug. “But don’t think that means I’m letting you hold a gun. You nearly blew my head off when you thought I was a Drone or some shit.”

JD winced, vaguely recalling unloading his pistol into a hoard of toothy monsters. 

“Yeah…that might be fair.” He agreed with a cringe.

“We might not have much of a choice. If there are more Swarm in these tunnels, we may have to fight our way back to grindlifts.” Marcus commented gruffly.

JD turned and eyed his heavy plates, discarded in the corner of their small alcove, and wondered if he would be strong enough to wear them. He quickly decided he would rather be laden down with bulky armour, sore and exhausted at the end if their trek, than vulnerable without it. He gripped the armour and hauled it up, slipping it on over his head with practiced movements but more effort that he would have expected.

With the plates in place and the straps tightened, he turned to the others. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to get out of here.”

When it dawned on them that they could all be free of the warm dank tunnels in just a few hours, whatever reservations the others might have had disappeared in an instant.

They swiftly grabbed their gear, shoving items into their packs without any thought for organization or even who the objects belonged to. A few moments later, they had their rucksacks on their backs and their rifles in hand.

All except JD. He was standing steadily on his feet, feeling tired and ready to move, but his hands oddly empty without his trusty Lancer to grip. The empty holster on his hip made him feel unbalanced, so used to the Boltok’s solid weight tugging down his utility belt.

He let his hands drop to his sides, anxiously clenching and unclenching his fists. He couldn’t blame them for not handing him a firearm, even if it left him feeling exposed and weak. If he was in their position, he wouldn’t trust him either. It didn’t stop him from enviously eyeing his Lancer where his father had it slung on his back.

“Fahz, you take point. Marcus, you stick with JD. I’ll bring up the rear.” Kait ordered, taking command easily. Technically Fahz was the second-in-command of their little squad, but he put up no opposition to the order.

With Fahz leading the way, they wormed their way back out to the main cavern. The dead Swarm from their battle were still laying where they’d fallen, the blue glow in their bodies and blood fading away. The smell was pungent and persistent in the damp air, and JD scrunched his nose and tried to breath through his mouth.

Progress was slow going. More than once JD stumbled and tripped in the darkness, dropping hard onto one or both knees with a hissed curse. His legs felt leaden and too rubbery, but with his father helping him to his feet they powered on.

Once, while nearing a point of intersecting paths, Dave gave a small warning chitter and enabled his cloaking. They all immediately got the message and hunkered down, hugging the dark walls of the tunnel as scrabbling and bickering Juvies rushed along, a growling pack of Pouncers following closely behind. They disappeared down a neighbouring tunnel, only briefly passing in front of the entrance to their path, but they all remained still and silent until Dave reappeared in front of them with a soft buzz.

No one complained about their snail’s pace, not even Fahz. Breaks had to be taken every half hour or so, giving JD the opportunity to sit on the wet stone floor and rest his limbs.

Climbing and descending the boulders and rubble was not nearly as easy as it had been while on their journey in. JD groaned quietly through clenched teeth, his arms burning and his fingers stiff as he hoisted his reluctant body up a steep embankment of loose stones. 

“Please tell me we’re almost out of here.” He grumbled as his father reached down and grabbed his arm to pull him up the last few feet.

“Just wait until you’re old like me. That’s how I feel all the time.” Marcus said unsympathetically. 

“So much to look forward to.” JD moaned, wanting to stretch his throbbing arms up over his head but finding them unwilling to respond.

Having JD effectively out of action made the rest of them extra cautious and alert. When Fahz threw up a hand to halt, they all responded instantly and pressed themselves to the tunnel walls. 

A few seconds later the walls trembled rhythmically, thrumming in beats beneath his palms. Then the sounds echoed up the wide stone corridor, the gut-wrenching sound of heavy footfalls. There were two sets of thumping footsteps, one slightly louder than the other. 

“Swarmaks!” Kait hissed, and they scrambled for cover.

The uneven and shadowed walls of their tunnel provided small spaces they could tuck themselves into, but it meant splitting up. Before JD could even spot a place to hide, Fahz had grasped him by the armour collar and yanked him into the darkness behind a jagged and broken rock face. 

The space was small and cramped but just large enough to fit the two of them. Just as he was forcefully shoved inside, JD managed to spot Kait’s armour lights disappear as she laid down and shimmied into a low narrow crack on the opposite side of the tunnel. 

JD wriggled and pushed himself as far into the darkness as his bulky armour would allow, the plates clinking dully as Fahz pressed in beside him and forcing his amour against his.

His view was mostly of the back of Fahz’s head, with glimpses of the rest of the tunnel beyond. The lumbering Swarmaks grew closer, the vibrations of every step growing more pronounced until JD worried the sound of his rattling armour would alert the beasts to their presence.

He heard Fahz’s breathing stop just as the first crystal-encrusted foot filled their narrow view, the force of the beast’s movements making the air roil around them. It was very rare any of them ever got this close to a Swarmak, and they _stank_! They smelled like rot and something like boiled aged fish. He knew he’d smelled that particular foul scent before, but it was usually in the middle of a heated firefight when he had other concerns to consider.

The first Swarmak passed by without noticing them, and the second came into view a few heartbeats later. 

He prayed they would pass by without catching sight of them, or smelling or hearing them. Thankfully his prayers were answered because the Swarmaks journey through the tunnels did not falter, and they disappeared around a bend after several long seconds.

Fahz let out the breath he’d been holding, and JD did the same. The smell of the big beasts lingered in the air, but the sound of them faded away. 

Cautiously Fahz pulled himself forward and out of JD’s personal space, and they eased out of their hidden hole. Straining his ears, JD waited and listened for the sound of any more Swarm, but the path ahead was silent. 

Kait quietly climbed out of her narrow crack, and JD turned to see Marcus drop down from behind a looming boulder.

“That,” JD kept his voice barely a whisper, “was a little too close.” 

“No shit,” Fahz snapped back, just as quiet and careful with his voice. “Let’s hurry up and get the hell out of here.”

No one had any clue why the path towards the hidden bunker had been so silent and calm on their journey in, only to be filled with Swarm on the way out. Maybe there was something with the great machine that had kept them away? Or maybe it was just pure luck that they hadn’t crossed paths with any of the creatures before.

It was a few more hours of slow walking, occasionally slipping into the darkness if they thought they would be spotted by packs of Swarm. JD was growing more and more exhausted, slipping and stumbling more frequently as time went on. 

When they rounded the corner and spotted the dull grey metal of their grindlifts, JD nearly whooped with relief. His father had an arm braced around his back, helping to support his weight for the last leg of their hike. 

JD nearly collapsed at the entrance of his pod, panting and sweating and his eyesight bleary as he fought to remain conscious. 

“Never thought I’d be so happy to see these bloody things again.” Fahz groaned, unslinging his pack and stowing the gear.

“You can rest in a few more minutes,” Kait murmured as she helped hoist JD to his feet again. He leaned heavily against the shell of the pod while she stored their weapons and relieved him of his gear.

He wanted to help, he really did, but any attempt to move his limbs only came out as a painful and useless flail. Without any grace or dignity, Kait managed to wrangle his limp form into the grindlift and secure him in the harness.

“It’s almost over.” She assured him with a smile, the straps clicking into place over his chest plate. JD managed a small nod and tried to focus on her face, but it was just a blur in the darkness of the pod.

The harness helped take some of the weight off his feet, and he felt himself relaxing into the straps to ease the strain on his muscles. At some point his eyes had slipped shut and his head had rolled forward, but sleep was stolen away from him by the sound of the grindlift engine roaring to life.

Some buried instinct overrode his exhaustion and he gripped the harness with what strength he had left, his teeth rattling in his skull. The pod swung and vibrated violently, then shuddered and shrieked as it began the long journey back up to the surface.

Eventually even the droning and grinding slipped to the background, and his eyes drooped again and his fingers slackened their hold.

He had vague memories of crunching rock and deafening roars of an engine, then a bone-shaking jolting as his body was jerked around. Then there were voices and someone all but carrying him from the grindlift into blinding hot sunlight. There was laughter and the sound of Cole’s voice booming beside him, then his armour was being pulled off over his head. 

JD wanted to protest, wanting to keep the security of the thick plates, but then he was laying on something soft and warm. In that moment JD was sure he had never felt so comfortable, and somewhere through the haze of his exhaustion he heard Kait tell him to sleep. So he did.


End file.
